PRONOUNCEMENTS by Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa that youth concerns remain Government’s top priority carried both poise and precision, but there are many challenges for young people in the country to become active economic players.
The greatest challenge confronting youths is some Government officials whose laid-back approach to issues that concern young people in Zimbabwe is proving costly for the country’s efforts for unprecedented economic development we all desire.
It is no secret that youths aspire to have a stake in the country’s economy, but those tasked with making that possible, with the exception of course, of President Robert Mugabe, the undisputed champion of youth empowerment, are blocking the young generation.
Statistics show that young people under the age of 35 constitute 77 percent of the country’s population.
This statistic means Government priority must be fixated on addressing issues that affect youths in the country, but the question remains; what is being done to deal with this issue?
This is the glaring and sometimes disheartening anomaly that VP Mnangagwa was correcting in his speech during the Zimbabwe Youth Council fundraising dinner last week.
In his speech, he highlighted several issues affecting youths in the country that Government must prioritise.
“As young people, they have certain challenges which include unemployment, underemployment, poverty, HIV and AIDS and substance abuse, just to mention a few,” said VP Mnangagwa.
“Given the demographics and such clear challenges, young people deserve a bigger share of development investments and initiatives.
“Addressing youth issues therefore remains a priority for the Government and private sector, development partners and communities at large.”
Despite this assurance by VP Mnangagwa, the sad reality is that he is unfortunately not reading from the same book with his colleagues in Cabinet.
This week the country’s leading weekly, The Sunday Mail carried a report that painted a gloomy picture for youths in the country.
The report once again brought to the fore the inefficiencies of some people in Government that we have covered extensively in this publication.
In the report it emerged that the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development is potentially scuttling a US$1,6 billion railway project between a youth organisation, the Zimbabwe Youth Development Trust (ZYDT) and a Chinese company, China Southern Railway Zhuzhou Company Limited.
“ZYDT said technical and financial feasibility studies had been submitted to the Transport and Infrastructure Development Ministry,” reads The Sunday Mail report in part.
“In a letter dated January 8 2015 to Transport Minister Obert Mpofu and copied to Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the trust said: ‘Following several meetings throughout the years beginning February 2013 to December 2014 between Zimbabwe Youth Development Trust (ZYDT) and your ministry, Honourable Minister, we have had to postpone the visit of our Chinese partners, China Southern Railway (CRS), to date since we have not received any formal communication in response to our submission of the technical and financial proposals you requested despite all the verbal assurances that the project should go ahead.”
Two key issues which need urgent probing emerge from this report.
In the first instance, is the fact that a potential investment of US$1,6 billion cannot be dealt with ‘verbally’.
This is a huge investment that require urgent and utmost priority if the country’s prospects for the much needed investment that we are all talking about is to come to fruition.
Second, the issue of attitude which we talked about last week gains prominence in this issue.
Surely we cannot have a negative attitude towards investors, more so those from friendly nations.
Who then shall youths turn to when we are treating our own like this?
What message are we sending to other investors when we are giving a cold shoulder to investments that run into billions of dollars?
Yet more questions are evoked from this sad story.
Did the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development do their job?
Did anyone from the ministry do research to authenticate the project in question if there were concerns?
Is someone playing games with youths and the nation at large by refusing to respond in writing to the youngsters?
Where are Kudzai Chipanga and his immediate boss in the ZANU PF Youth League, Pupurai Togarepi in this fiasco?
Another issue that should be of concern to the Government is the Goodwills Masimirembwa’s Central Mechanical Equipment Department (CMED).
Last week we reported that CMED is dilly dallying with the issue of other youths who want to do a mass bus transit project by giving one excuse after the other.
Fresh information gathered by The Patriot this week would make President Mugabe, without doubt, angry.
We are told that relevant papers pertaining to the project which we understand is in excess of US$300 million dollars were submitted to CMED sometime last year, but as of yesterday no one had done anything about the investment.
And we cry that investors are shunning Zimbabwe when we are the ones doing the shunning?
Our efforts to get a comment from Cde Masimirembwa were fruitless.
After all is said and done, the fact remains that those who care about lining their pockets, those who try to deceive everyone through sometimes senseless sloganeering are the ones destroying this country.
They are the ones stealing the future of this country through their continued snubbing of youth oriented projects.
Let those with ears listen.