The Sunday Mail
George Maponga at Great Zimbabwe
Government is aware of the unemployment challenges that are affecting Zimbabweans and is working flat out to improve their lot and empower them, President Mugabe has said.
At yesterday’s 21st February Movement celebrations organised by Zanu-PF’s Youth League to mark his 92nd birthday, President Mugabe said sanctions and other negative forms of external interference in the country’s affairs had caused socio-economic challenges.
The President said by virtue of constituting the majority of Zimbabwe’s population, Government recognised youths as an integral part of the country’s development agenda.
‘‘The situation in our country, politically, socially and economically, has not been favourable to our youth. This is mainly due to the illegally-imposed sanctions and the external meddling in our affairs, by enemies of the revolution,” he said.
‘‘This has resulted in unemployment, exacerbated by the closure of companies and also a lack of resources to finance youth programmes,” said the President.
President Mugabe cited unemployment as the biggest challenge facing youths and challenged young people to take a leading role in beneficiation of natural resources to end the scourge of joblessness in line with the national economic blueprint, Zim-Asset.
“Unemployment is the biggest challenge we are facing as a nation and the youth being the working age group are the most affected.
‘‘Our first commitment is to empower the youth so they become creators of employment and so that we can accommodate them in various sectors of the economy.
“This is going to be done by way of allocating given percentages of our operations in economic sectors, including land.”
Turning to ruling party youths, President Mugabe warned them against being used by party heavyweights to fan factionalism and urged them to blow the whistle and expose those sowing seeds of division in Zanu-PF.
He said discipline remained the cornerstone of a strong youth movement geared towards defending the revolution. President Mugabe paid tribute to Zanu-PF youths for resisting attempts to use them to instigate violence at the ruling party’s December 2015 Annual National People’s Conference.
The 21st February Movement, President Mugabe said, should develop peace-loving young people.
“Discipline shall always be a fundamental requirement in the youth movement if we are to achieve a well-coordinated and united movement.
“The Youth League is our vanguard of the revolution and in the event of divisionists coming to confuse you, blow the whistle,” he said.
‘‘The youth must have the knowledge of our party’s ideology, values, constitution and objectives. Therefore, I encourage the Youth League to carry with them a national vision. This entails our youth having National Service training, apart from the party ideology and other cultural and historical instruction,” said Zanu-PF’s First Secretary.
President Mugabe urged youths to embrace use of ICTs to promote research and innovation but warned against abuse of social media for divisive purposes. Zimbabwean youths, added the Head of State and Government, should be at the forefront of upholding moral dignity as Africans despite pressures engendered by globalisation.
