The Sunday Mail
Ngonidzashe Muzondo
The centrality and importance of youth as pillars of the present and future of the African continent cannot be overemphasised.
Not surprisingly, there is a catalogue of policies, charters, constitutions, ministries, departments, trusts and organisations that are being established to develop and empower youth for leadership roles.
The United Nations, through its Sustainable Development Goals, and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 recognises both youth and women as central to inclusive and sustainable economic growth.
One of the major selling points for Zanu-PF before last year’s harmonised elections was the promise to initiate and accelerate youth empowerment programmes.
Similarly, the revolutionary party pivoted its 2013 campaign on youth development through indigenisation, empowerment and employment.
And this was undoubtedly one of the reasons why the party won the elections.
It is quite clear that Zanu-PF’s social media blitz in 2018 — which was underlined by the hashtag #EDHasMyVote — was designed to capture the imagination of youths and tap on this invaluable youth dividend, which made up a sizeable portion of the 5,3-million voting population.
It all became a winning formula.
Notwithstanding the general consensus that young people constitute a sizeable chunk of the local population and their empowerment must be prioritised, there generally seems to be some lethargy in driving the youth empowerment programmes.
Zanu-PF, particularly the Youth League, has to renew its revolutionary fervour towards youth empowerment for the various initiatives to gain traction. This can be a low-hanging fruit as the party can leverage on the vibrancy of its structures to drive the agenda.
Zanu-PF’s Youth League is the vanguard of the revolutionary party, and is undoubtedly a very powerful wing that can be used to marshal economic programmes that benefit young people, the majority of who are currently relegated to the bottom of economic pyramid in Zimbabwe.
Suffice to say, the Youth League should temporarily shelve politicking and instead pursue a broad-based economic empowerment strategy that dovetails with the policy objectives of the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) and Vision 2030.
The inordinate focus on politics seem to betray the lack of a broader and productive youth agenda where energies can be expended.
Political gamesmanship is typically an affront to the values that are being pushed by the Second Republic under the able leadership of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The President has continued to reiterate that there is need to focus more on the economy and less on politics.
Therefore, the Zanu-PF Youth League should be conscious of the onerous task that is before it.
Zanu-PF, as the governing party, has a sacred mandate to deliver on its election promises.
And the urgency of the task at hand — which must obviously be defined by the need to lift economically disenfranchised youth to a platform of self-determination and freedom — can also not be overemphasised.
The Youth League must, therefore, embark on economic empowerment projects that are designed to benefit the youth operating in various sectors of the economy.
Most youths are already active in the economy and it is incumbent upon the leadership of the Youth League to take time to listen to their concerns, including what is required to scale up their ventures. Past experience has shown that there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to economic empowerment.
Nor does doling loans to youths make a meaningful contribution to empowerment.
The high non-performing loans, which plagued the Youth Fund that used to be bankrolled by CABS, is quite instructive. There is need to move away from a system that prioritises loan disbursements to one that is designed to nurture nascent business ventures.
Zimbabwe, like many other countries, has a youth bulge, which means it has a vibrant youthful population that is vibrant, innovative and more exciting. Sixty-eight percent of the country’s population is under the age of 35.
Unfortunately, youths make up the bulk of the country’s population that is exposed to unemployment.
So the importance of youth engagement in the inclusive growth and sustainable development of the country is quite apparent.
But the Zanu-PF Youth League can use these circumstances to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem for young people to thrive. It is now time to harness the human capital and youth dividend towards making Zimbabwe a formidable social, economic and political powerhouse.
