Youth Service not exclusive to Zimbabwe

LAST month, South African President Jacob Zuma officiated at a graduation of a youth service programme at the De Brug Military Base in Bloemfontein.

According to the United Nations Public Administration Network, the 500 participants graduated from a seven-week "non-military training course programme, where they were taught self-discipline, courage, leadership and patriotism".

According to the journal, in December last year, another 600 participants underwent a skills development programme at Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges in the Western Cape, where they were taught subjects such as decision-making, citizenship and life skills orientation.

"All these programmes are designed to prepare the youth to become better persons and foot soldiers for their respective communities," said Zuma.

Does this sound familiar? It should.
Zimbabwe has its own version of what South Africa is doing, the National Youth Service which began in 2001 - only it has courted much controversy and malice.

The Zimbabwean programme was shelved for want of funds in 2007.

In the period it was operational the programme produced 80 000 graduands from an array of training centres nationwide.

Recently, Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, sought to re-introduce the programme.

Minister Kasukuwere proposed to immediately implement massive training of youths to help young people learn Zimbabwe's revolution, pre-colonial systems, colonialism and the post-colonial state, self-help projects and agriculture, among other things.

The programme, incorporating youths of up to the age of 35, would churn 300 000 graduands annually.

But the proposal ran into opposition mainly from the MDC formations.

While some detractors insinuated that the programme was an election strategy on the part of Zanu-PF as it sought to mobilise youths and unleash the same youths on untoward civilians, there are more benefits in undergoing national service that not.

Even the United Sates has a compulsory national youth service and many European countries also do have it, yet when it comes to Zimbabwe, there is a lot of name-calling, even as worse as militia. Of course, militia is abuse of lingua franca by those opposed to national youth service.

In many countries where national youth service is implemented, the youth are given direction on national ethos, beliefs, policy and end up having ideological clarity on what their country stands for.

In Zimbabwe there have been spirited attempts to demean the national youth programme through accusations that have lingered around the programme, with its graduands being derisively called "green-bombers" on account of their uniforms.

There have been pointed accusations of the programme.

One report gives a dramatic and chilling overview of the programme, with obvious hints of untruths and bias, sponsored by the western capitol, which ironically implement national youth policy.

It says: "The national youth service training programme masquerades as a youth training scheme that imparts useful skills and patriotic values . . . nothing could be farther from the truth.

"The reality is a paramilitary training programme for Zimbabwe's youth with the clear aim of inculcating blatantly antidemocratic, racist and xenophobic attitudes.

"The youth militias so created are used as instruments of the ruling party, to maintain their hold on power by whatever means necessary, including torture, rape, murder and arson.

"Having been thoroughly brain-washed, the youth militias are deployed to carry out whatever instructions they receive from their political commissars, on the understanding that they will never be called to account by this regime for any of their deeds . . . the use of the militias by those who control them to carry forward the ZANU-PF political agenda in everything from manipulating election results to controlling the food distribution process to the party's advantage."

It must be noted that for all its inaccuracies, the above report is emblematic of the beef that many people have, including some Government officials.

Since the programme should be re-introduced, or rather continued, in line with the Global Political Agreement it will be necessary for authorities to sell the programme for what it is.

Article 15 of the GPA states that "The parties hereby agree that:
(a) All youths regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and political affiliation are eligible to participate in national youth training programme.
(b) The national Youth training Programme must be run in a non-partisan manner and shall not include partisan political material advancing the cause of any political party."

Already, there has been movement on the programme.
The programme is consistent with the National Youth Policy of Zimbabwe and the African youth Charter.

Since the formation of the inclusive Government there also has been "inclusive" approach to the programme.

This includes formation of legal instruments and study visits to Tanzania and Rwanda.

The visits compromised of youth representatives of all GPA parties who contributed to a draft document after their visit.

But then the programme still not found universal takers.

Questions still linger.
It is the duty of responsible authorities to help the programme shed off its bad image, much of which has been wilfully pasted on it.

On the other hand, there have been reports of the graduands being used by certain political players for their own selfish ends.

The young people would not have much choice but to be beholden to these unscrupulous politicians.

But then the graduands being taught on such universal issues such as human rights, democracy, entrepreneurship, life skills as well as Zimbabwe's history, there is little to apologise for, or let the blights, imagined or otherwise bring down the programme.

Zimbabwe's history and national strategic interests know no parties.

If the programme is run to promote this, as is currently the case, nobody should be worried that is not against the same.

Perhaps that is the crux of the matter.

Those opposed to the national interests of Zimbabwe, which the national service programme stand for have cried foul as the graduands have developed keenness to not only what the country stands for but also what assails that which the country stands for.

There is a world of difference between brainwashing and consciousness.

And the graduands should not apologise for their alignment to Zanu-PF, if need be, if the party embodies the aspirations of Zimbabweans.

Similarly, they can identify with whosoever champions the cause of Zimbabwean people, now as the country is under attack from the West or whatever historical and political age.

It is little doubt that the mendacity and malice directed against the youth programme, infamously embodied in that foul report on the BBC some years ago, and as cloned by the passage above, are a knee-jerk response to a people owning and acting upon a patriotic history.

In this vein, one can note that if there are 80 000 graduands from the youth training as admitted by MDC-T former Youth Deputy Minister, Thamsanqa Mahlangu and are unleashed as militia as claimed then they are more like the Zimbabwe national army in terms of size.

They are not; and in all honesty they are not the monsters, rapists or the "bombers" they are said to be.

Youth service programmes are common worldwide including in the US, Mexico, Chile, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, South Africa, among others.

Zimbabwe needs to know what is right for it and proceed with the programme if this country is to have future leaders who are patriotic and ideologically clear and in the words of Jacob Zuma, prepared to be "foot soldiers" of their country.