By Tatenda Dewa | Harare Bureau |
Zanu PF politburo member and key strategist in the Generation 40 (G40) faction, Jonathan Moyo, has said youths will sway the 2018 general elections.
Moyo was a guest at a journalists’ debate in Bulawayo last Friday and said population statistics showed that young people were dominant and would thus play a vital role in determining the outcome of the elections.
The 2012 national census indicated that young people, up to 35 years, dominate the Zimbabwean population.
“If anyone does not understand that the 2018 and any election going forward now will be going to be decided by (young people) then there is something wrong with that person.
“I think we have a problem as Zimbabweans because sometimes we do not want to engage facts that speak for themselves.
“That’s not about political faction. That’s demography and demographics tell their own story,” said Moyo, also the Higher and Tertiary Education minister.
The G40 faction in the ruling party is founded on the need for leadership renewal through the infusion of younger blood.
With the help of Grace Mugabe, the president’s wife who has in the past scorned war veterans and the generals, G40 has been using the party youth wing to advance its factional interests, dishing out residential stands.
The camp is stuck in a bitter turf war with Team Lacoste led by Vice President and ex-combatant Emmerson Mnangagwa that represents the ideals of the war against colonialism and is supported by most of the generals who participated in the liberation struggle.
Generation 40, however, is gunning for Mugabe to stand again in 2018 after turning 94, but critics say it is a deliberate strategy to ensure that Mnangagwa does not succeed the president and persecute them. Nehanda Radio
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