AFRICAN EYE

My inbox has been inundated by messages from the Zimbabwe Youth Council questioning the motive of my well-researched article published by Nehanda news and that appeared on my blog (http//:no-rawedge.blogspot.com). They have even divorced themselves from the comments attributed to their Director, Livingston Dzikira. Dzikira however has chosen to distance himself from what he said at a UNICEF organized workshop where I happened to be. It is such an impulsive culture of lies and deceit that makes one to wonder and question if at all his comments ruffled and exposed the credibility and independence of Zimbabwe Youth Council from external pressures. The youth council should note that it is not the media’s that their director carelessly commented on the issue, now that he has noticed the danger and damage of his comments; he decides to divorce himself from such comments so as to save his job. It is such culture that stifles to a standstill every prospect of innovation within the youth cou

The recent story published by Newsday about the Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises and co-operative Development ,Sithembiso Nyoni,who is the MP for Nkayi North ,made sad reading. She called for a political rally in her constituency disguised as a “development” meeting. This is not only a move by a misguided and an incompetent MP, but a telling example of someone who has lost the meaning of what it means to be a leader. The story made me sympathize with the people in her constituency who had walked for long distances on foot given the shortage of transport owing to a poor road network, with the hope that they were going to get funds for income generating projects. To their surprise, it turned out to be a ZANU PF political rally campaign. What still boggles my mind is why the honourable minister is not shameful for staging such a moronic gaffe, designed to take people for granted. For how long shall the people of Kana and Gokwe be taken for granted by successive politicians?

Over the years the Zimbabwe has witnessed many socio-political and economic changes. These changes have a direct effect on every age group. However, the most vulnerable group is the youth who remain at the mercy of circumstances. With the scourge of unemployment running rampant, many fall unsuspectingly into the trap of being used for other selfish means by politicians. The youth constitute the majority of the population, this entails that whenever there is any economic haemorrhage and meltdown, and they are affected the most. Despite this, over the years, the youth have played servitude and prostration at the hands of politicians who have continued to use them as barricades against leadership change and renewal. The problem we have in Zimbabwe today is that those in positions of leadership are not prepared to relinquish their privileges so as to accommodate the plight of the suffering masses ( youths included)such as dealing with the high rate of unemployment, either because of ide