New empowerment strategy in the works

Government is consolidating Zimbabwe's Independence by building an enduring inheritance for young people and an elaborate strategy to that effect will soon be unveiled, a Cabinet minister has said.

War veterans also want a heart-to-heart with the youth and to bequeath their revolutionary spirit to them.

Tomorrow Zimbabwe celebrates its 36th Independence Day having implemented land reforms and embarked on the second leg of economic emancipation through a broad empowerment and indigenisation policy.

Land and control of other natural resources were central to the liberation war that the black majority in the then Southern Rhodesia won and sealed on April 18, 1980.

As such, the 2016 Uhuru celebrations can be read against progression from political to economic independence.

Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Minister Patrick Zhuwao told The Sunday Mail that a youth empowerment strategy was in the works.

He said the strategy would include input from a wide stakeholder spectrum while feeding from Zim-Asset and the African Union's youth investment theme for 2017.

"On the economic front, we have set the foundation for the economic liberation of Zimbabwe. However, having enunciated all of those successes, we need to then prepare for the future and this really touches on our responsibility as a ministry.

"The future revolves around and belongs to the youth, and we have a specific obligation to ensure we provide and put in place mechanisms that will allow young people to prosper.

"In 2015, the ministry conducted a study into youth investment, and recommendations on how Government can assist have been made. This process comes as we are preparing for next year's African Union theme which talks to harnessing demographic dividend through investment in youth.

"Consequently, we have embarked on a process, as a ministry, of developing a youth empowerment strategy for making that investment. The strategy seeks to address economic empowerment, social engagement and political participation."

Minister Zhuwao also said, "Fulfilment of economic empowerment is not the end of our revolution. The goals of our revolution is to go further towards strengthening the future of Zimbabwe as a nation and all its citizens.

"That strengthening involves making sure that we constantly upgrade and strengthen our political processes which gave rise to our independence. We should build on our social capital, ensuring that we are economically free and abide by the principles of sustainable development."

Secretary for Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators, Former Political Detainees and Restrictees Brigadier-General (Retired) Asher Walter Tapfumaneyi said the liberation struggle was premised on equality and economic empowerment.

Veterans, he said, wanted a heart-to-heart with young people to educate them on loving and defending the country.

"Now we are pushing the indigenisation policy, which was elaborated by the President a few days ago. Some blacks have shamefully formed political parties to oppose land reform. That mentality is intended to fight what we are trying to achieve.

"We are now in a second phase of the liberation struggle where we are fighting on the economic front, to free our economy from the tentacles of capitalist imperialism so that we control, have a voice on the markets, and have voice on production, have a voice in all aspects of economic development and growth.

"That voice is being denied us. It will be fought through corruption, sanctions, hostile media, denigrating our leaders and stigmatising them and opposition political parties that are not nationalistic in outlook."

He added: "As war veterans, we are happy that from 2000 to 2002, Government took a deliberate step to acquire and re- distribute the land to indigenous people.

"… To the young generation, let us have a conversation, a dialogue between the generations. We are a generation that remembers, a generation that fought the liberation war and there is a lot to learn from us.

"And let us have a conversation where we impart to you the spirit that drove us to fight for Zimbabwe and the spirit that has carried us all along to defend this country. A spirit of belonging that is necessary for Zimbabwe to remain Zimbabwe, unique from any other country."