Tongai Kasukuwere

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Tongai Kasukuwere

Tongai Kasukuwere is one of the numerous 'Young Turks' romped into the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front(ZANU PF) party. He is also farmer and a businessman. He is Saviour Kasukuwere's young brother. He was elected to be the Secretary for Legal Affairs at the ZANU PF Youth Conference held in August 2014.

Educational Qualifications

  1. Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Organisational Psychology from the University of Cape Town (2003)
  2. Certificate for Young Politicians in Africa from the Education and Training Unit (ETU)

Work Experience

  1. Director at Comoil (2000-2011)
  2. Director at Autocity Pvt Ltd (2004)
  3. Executive Director at Commercial Coal (2012)[1]

Political career

Kasukuwere began to rise from obscurity in January 2009 when he was elected to be an executive member of the ZANU PF's Youth League when he was voted to be the Secretary for External Affairs, up until August 2014 when he was elected to be the Secretary for Legal Affairs during the ZANU PF 6th Annual Youth Conference.

Kasukuwere is one of the so called 'Young Turks' romped into ZANU PF, who were allowed to contest for the primary elections under the ZANU PF card to contest in the 31st July 2013 elections which ZANU PF is said to have won resoundingly. The idea of allowing these 'Young Turks' was approved by the politburo as the new primary elections guidelines.[2] Prior to this new development, the requirement was that only card-carrying ZANU PF members who had served the party for more than five years were the ones eligible to contest in the primary elections.[2] It was reported that the 'Young Turks' were to be vetted by the party and the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) before being allowed to contest.[2] But what is of particular interest is that it was reported that most of those who consisted this group of young Turks' are affiliated to senior party officials.

In September 2010, Kasukuwere was reported to have compiled a list of retail shops owned by foreigners and he took the list to senior party officials under the auspices of the Affirmative Action Group (AAG) formed to identify retail shops run by foreigners in the central business district with the aim of parcelling them to the people.[3] He is believed also to have been given a US$5 000 loan under the Youth Development Fund for a horticulture project through his company Stormgrip and is still yet to repay the loan.[4]

On 4 August 2014, he was elected to be the Chairman of ZANU PF's Youth League in Mashonaland Central Province after defeating Obert Mutasa who was allegedly accused of being backed by the ousted Minister of Labour, Public Service and Social Welfare, Nicholas Goche believed to be aligned to Joice Mujuru's faction which was endlessly vilified for fanning factionalism within ZANU PF and poised to assassinate Robert Mugabe.[5] Kasukuwere also played a pivotal role in mobilising and addressing youths who are said to have harassed senior party officials aligned to Mujuru when they were dropping off their CVs to be voted for into the Central Committee.[6]

Kasukuwere did not contend with the outcome of the 2014 election results at the ZANU PF Youth Conference held in August in 2014 as he was eyeing to be the Deputy Secretary for the Youth League, an influential post which was clinched by Kudzai Chipanga. He appealed to the senior echelons of the party to address the election irregularities that were purportedly believed to have marred the Youth Conference. When the conference ended, he went to the State House accompanied by his brother Saviour, Lewis Matutu Patrick Zhuwao and Edson Chakanyuka to present their petition to Mugabe who asked them to provide concrete evidence to substantiate their accusations.[7] The collage later brought seven of the ten provincial youth chairpersons to testify against ZANU PF bigwigs fingered in the vote buying scandal which rocked the Youth Conference and Temba Mliswa and Webster Shamu were the main culprits.[7] Notwithstanding this, Chipanga was endorsed by Mugabe during the ZANU PF 6th Congress held from 2–6 December 2014.

Trivia

He was ranked 25th among the 50 most influential young people in Zimbabwe in 2014 in a survey conducted by the Zimbabwe Research Institute.[8]

References

  1. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Patrice Makova, Zanu PF ‘Young Turks’ given lease of life, The Standard, published:25 Mar 2013, retrieved:17 December 2014"
  2. Zanu (PF) sets up xenophobic terror group on foreign businesses, Zimbabwe Black Book News, published:22 Sep 2010,retrieved:17 December 2014"
  3. , Kasukuwere gave brother government loan, Zimbabwe Situation, published:21 Mar 2014,retrieved:17 December 2014"
  4. Elias Mlambo, TONGAI KASUKUWERE ROMPS TO VICTORY IN MASHONALAND CENTRAL ZANU PF YOUTH LEAGUE, FOCUS, published:4 Aug 2014,retrieved:17 December 2014"
  5. Kasukuwere Rescues Nicholas Goche From Zanu PF Youths, ZimEye, published:23 Nov 2014,retrieved:17 December 2014"
  6. 7.0 7.1 Why Mugabe Called Ministers To State House, NewsdzeZimbabwe, published:21 Aug 2014,retrieved:17 December 2014"
  7. Mugabe's Son Named Among Top 5 Most Influential Young Zimbabweans, Mafaro, published:16 Dec 2014,retrieved:17 December 2014"

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