The Sunday Mail
The Zhuwao Brief congratulates President Mugabe for being invited to chair a youth empowerment conference on the side lines of the forthcoming UN General Assembly.
It is appropriate that President Mugabe has been chosen to chair this important event given his consistent record towards the journey of economic liberation that has become an essential component of post-independent Africa’s agenda.
I am also pleased that Africa’s oldest liberation movement, South Africa’s ANC, is hosting an elective congress this weekend for its youth league in Midrand.
This is such a welcome development after the ANC Youth League went into some form of hibernation following the expulsion of the bulk of its national leadership.
The former leadership of the ANC Youth League, led by Honourable Julius Malema, went on to form the Economic Freedom Fighters after having been expelled.
The EFF secured seats in parliament and some of their leaders earned themselves the title of being honourable.
However, they have been described as an inconvenient youth. But what is an inconvenient youth?
Allow me to emphasise that the Zhuwao Brief subscribes to the doctrine of non-interference in the internal affairs of our sovereign neighbours.
Pursuant to that belief, I will attempt to refrain from commenting on the goings-on in South Africa’s body politic, meaning I will locate the notion of an inconvenient youth within Zimbabwe’s context.
This week we interrogate the role of the youth in our own liberation movement of Zanu-PF.
Should our youth be inconvenient?
To address this issue, the Zhuwao Brief will discuss how we used to operate as the Zanu-PF Youth League National Executive Committee.
During our tenure, we borrowed from our sister liberation movements such as ANC and Chama Cha Mapinduzi (Tanzania).
As I served as Zanu-PF’s National Director for Youth, I was fortunate to be counselled by one service chief whom I continue to have tremendous respect and affection for.
He said the energy and vibrancy of the youth must always be tempered by the wisdom and experience of elders.
This was very relevant from someone who participated in Zimbabwe’s war of liberation as a young person.
The general knew what he was talking about.
For me at that time, being an inconvenient youth meant pushing the envelope to certain limits that were determined by the senior leadership.
Making noise was part of the grand scheme of things as they were being engineered by the senior leadership.
We were a conveniently inconvenient youth whose role was to provide justification for the actions of the senior leadership.
We needed to create conditions that would form the bedrock of decisions by the senior leadership.
We understood that there were certain objectives that needed to be accomplished in our revolutionary journey. In some cases, we needed to employ innovative and unconventional measures.
We were also aware that some of our tactics were not favoured by the senior leadership. Consequently, we would engage in endeavours that the senior leadership was not aware of in order to provide a viable basis of plausible deniability for the senior leadership.
Oft times, the late Vice-President Msika would be tasked with chastising us.
After a thorough tongue lashing by Comrade Spit Fire, he would smile and say, “Keep up the pressure. That is what youth is supposed to do.”
The inconvenience of our actions as members of the Zanu-PF Youth League was always part of fulfilling certain objectives of the revolution.
We considered ourselves the foot soldiers of the revolution. We recognised that we had vastly experienced commanders. Consequently, we accepted the direction that they gave us.
To that end, the inconvenience of the youth must be part of a greater objective.
While President Mugabe remarked that South Africa was in need of “another liberation”, the Zhuwao Brief is convinced that the bulk of Africa is in need of such.
It is a liberation that requires freedom fighters. These freedom fighters need to be conveniently inconvenient.
An example of one of those inconveniences includes the need for the youth to spearhead the drive to free Zimbabwe from the shackles of corruption and abuse of power and authority.
These vices are now threatening to devour our hard won independence.
We are saddled, as a nation, by persons that are pursuing selfish and individualistic programmes of self-enrichment at the people’s expense.
Such elements need to be flushed out. That is what an inconvenient youth does.
Already, President Mugabe has pronounced himself on corruption. The State of the Nation Address unveiled a 10-Point plan that includes fighting corruption.
This confirms that the youth have been directed to spearhead another revolution; to spearhead a revolution against corruption.
The Zhuwao Brief views the corruption that is being perpetrated by space barons as a clear and present threat and danger to Zimbabwe’s well-being.
The corrupt activities of space barons are choking the future.
Space barons are operating on agricultural land as well as in urban areas to the detriment of young people who are in dire need of land for agriculture and for housing.
The irony of it all is that the space barons operate in areas where the young people reside.
The youth can do something about these charlatans.
This is the arena within which our youth have the opportunity to demonstrate their revolutionary credentials.
It is time for us to have an inconvenient youth; a youth that spearheads another liberation.
We need to be liberated from corruption. Pasi nembavha. Icho!
Patrick Zhuwao is chair of the Zhuwao Institute, an economics, development and research think tank focused on integrating socio-political dimensions into business and economic decision-making, particularly strategic planning. He can be reached at [email protected]
