When I was trying to explain Zimbabwe’s National Youth Training Programme to someone today, the first words that came out of my mouth were “youth militia” – not youth service. This isn’t surprising given how many youth service graduates have been manipulated into being agents of political violence. Youth Initiative for Democracy in Zimbabwe (YIDEZ) is launching a campaign for the reform of this youth training programme into a non-partisan youth empowerment programme.

The Zimbabwe National Youth Training Program (NYTP) was established in July 2001. Its aim was to instil patriotism and self reliance amongst other values that were never practiced. Training at the camps was stopped in 2007 but graduates from these institutions are still being deployed to carry out partisan political work and some are serving as youth officers and are paid using tax payers’ money. Nine years since its inception, with 80,000 graduates, the curriculum of the program still remains ‘top secret’.

The Global Political Agreement provides that; the program shall be run in a non-partisan manner. The Ministry of Youth Development, Indigenization & Empowerment recently initiated a process that intends to reintroduce the NYTP. Part of the process will include public consultations.

As a member of Civic Society, YIDEZ is concerned by the Ministry’s limited engagement of the key stakeholder (YOUTH) in this process. In 2001 the program was implemented without the input, consent and involvement of young people and the general public.  If this program is intended for the benefit of young people, then this oversight cannot be repeated.  As the youth, we are saying:

• We demand genuine reform and consultations in the development and delivery of the National Youth Service Training Program
• We demand transparency and that our voice, as the youth of Zimbabwe, be heard in the curriculum development process
• Nothing for us without us

To join the campaign and find out more, contact YIDEZ on yidez@zol.co.zw or +263-4-776772

The caption from The Herald front page on Friday sums up more than this photograph – it seems sadly apt for the progress of Zimbabwe’s inclusive government as well: “Morgan Tsvangirai (out of picture).”

Writing in Business Day last week, Allister Sparks argues that Zimbabwe’s inclusive government is not working – and that it needs to be scrapped. Whilst there’s a lot about the inclusive government not working that I’d agree with, the solution Sparks outlines is optimistic – if Mugabe isn’t willing to see the inclusive government work, why would he consider internationally supervised elections in which all citizens can vote – without the ability to gate keep through the voters’ roll. And in the mean time, what about Zimbabwe’s dream of a new Constitution – and a new political framework that guarantees democratic elections which can usher in a government elected freely by the people?

It’s time for South Africa, as the leading power in SADC, to say, “Enough!” If President Zuma has any political balls at all, he should tell Mugabe so during his visit to Harare this week.

He should tell him the GPA is obviously not working, that it is clear Mugabe is determined not to allow it to work, and that the South African Government is therefore going to call on SADC, as guarantor of the deal, to declare it to have been irretrievably violated and so nullified — and to demand the holding of an early election so that a new government with a genuine public mandate can take over.

This election should be supervised — not just observed — by a large team of electoral specialists from the SADC countries, especially South Africa. Moreover it should not be run on the basis of Zimbabwe’s hopelessly defective voters’ roll but by letting all adult citizens vote as has been done with the first elections of all newly independent countries in Africa.

Zuma should tell Mugabe, too, that if he and his ZANU-PF cohorts refuse to accept such a process, South Africa will press for Zimbabwe’s membership of SADC to be suspended, and for any regime that might be unilaterally installed not to be recognised by SADC and the African Union. The country would then be isolated.

Only South Africa has the influence and power to do this. If necessary we could do it unilaterally. It’s time we acted on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe and the whole region, to say nothing of our own image as a nation whose internationally assisted rebirth surely imposes a moral obligation on us.

But don’t hold your breath. Decisiveness is not Zuma’s strong suit on any issue.

From one of Kubatana’s subscribers living in Glen Norah, Harare:

My dreams for Zimbabwe are to see a transformed nation. A nation where rule of law exists. A nation united and growing to be Africa’s power house. My dream for Zimbabwe is to make Zimbabwe the breadbasket that it is supposed to be. It is to see a Zimbabwe with freedom of expression and democracy. I mean real freedom, not talked freedom. To see the politicians respecting the human race; not treating them as their stools to stand on, and only to throw them away. – James

Read this open letter from Dale Doré

Dear Prime Minister,

After a brave, harrowing and tearful account of a victim’s experience of being raped you asked: “How do you confront a dictator using democratic means?” With due respect, Prime Minister, it is not by dining with the dictator every Monday while crimes are committed against your supporters. Nor do you confront a dictator by proclaiming that he is part of the solution when he is, and always has been, part of the problem. Nor do you confront a dictator by undemocratically handing power to him. After nearly a decade of struggle, the Zimbabwean people elected you as their President, not as a powerless Prime Minister. Yet, it was you and your party that negotiated and handed back power to the dictator and the loser of the March 2008 presidential elections. This was not only a betrayal of the democratic principles that you espouse, but you had no mandate from the people to do so.

Nor, Prime Minister, do you confront a dictator by following his lead on pernicious and racist policies. Instead of supporting an international court’s ruling to which Zimbabwe is bound by treaty and international law, you have supported the dictator’s unlawful and ‘irreversible’ land policies.  Nor can you pretend that you did not mean that sanctions on ZANU(PF) individuals should be lifted just because you used the words ‘restrictive measures’.  It now seems that you are no longer confronting the dictator’s imposition of an indigenisation policy that will end any chance of investment to create desperately needed jobs.  If the truth be told, Prime Minister, you have not confronted the dictator using democratic or any other means. You have trusted him, colluded with him, and appeased him. In doing so you have – as one commentator put it – gambled your political credibility to the hilt.

You have also sent him the very signals by which he manipulates you. Whenever you tell the dictator that you will never abandon the GPA, you strengthen his resolve to repudiate it. Whenever you tell the dictator that past crimes should be forgiven and forgotten, it emboldens him to act with greater impunity. Even as you preach healing and tolerance to the dictator over dinner, he prepares for arrests, violence and intimidation against your supporters in the run-up to elections.

We therefore call upon you to focus all your strength and energy on ensuring that Zimbabweans can vote in peace, and in the knowledge that every vote counts.  Democracy and justice will only prevail when we start concentrating our minds on what really matters: providing security to remove any and every threat of election violence; tightening the electoral process to prevent rigging; and ensuring the peaceful handover of power. As the coercive power of the state remains firmly in the grip of the dictator, the imperative is to build a powerful coalition of political and diplomatic forces that will deny him victory through violence.

The tears of anguish of a single woman – or indeed those of thousands of your compatriots who have been tortured, raped and murdered – cries out, not for rhetorical answers, but for a leadership that demands democracy and justice. The hope of millions of Zimbabweans to live in dignity and freedom, Prime Minister, lies in your courage and leadership to confront the dictator. You must not fail them.

Spot the difference . . . this is exactly what we’ve been through, and are still experiencing in Zimbabwe. If only it were as simple as civil society and trade unions standing up.

Below is a letter printed in Business Day:

TS Eliot perfectly sums up our gloomy state of affairs: “we are the hollow men, we are the stuffed men … shape without form, shade without colour, paralysed force, gesture without motion … this is the dead land, this is cactus land”.

If Nelson Mandela was our nirvana, the new leadership is our nadir. Despondency and gloom have replaced hope. Greed and plunder have taken over from selflessness and servant leadership. Without any skill, education or hard work, one can accumulate millions in a week, more than Raymond Ackerman did in the first decade of running Pick n Pay.

Your green and gold political membership card is more precious than a university degree or values. If you are connected, a phone call to a well-placed minister will open doors for you. Talent and competence are irrelevant. State institutions are paralysed by inept leadership and infighting.

It is twisted irony that the new rulers praise apartheid monsters such as PW Botha for their leadership. Spare a thought for his victims. Like his predecessor, Adriaan Vlok, our current police minister is smiling, as the blue light brigade harasses poor citizens.

Sixteen years ago, Africa looked up to us for inspiration — today we are Africa’s cartoons.

Be warned: these are the first signs of post-colonialism blues that destroyed most of Africa’s young democracies. This is our Damascus moment. If we do nothing — we go the Zimbabwe direction. Zimbabwe is a state of mind and not a place.

Please do not blame Julius Malema for milking the system. It is not his fault. All he did was rent out his name to interested parties. Our flawed democracy was designed to benefit the elite and not the masses.

Yesterday it was Thabo Mbeki ’s group to enjoy the fruits of liberation. Now it is Jacob Zuma ’s turn. Moaning will not help. Every comrade wants a taste of the state honey.

Like cancer, political decay has spread to all parts of our body. It is sad for the African National Congress — the party of Sisulu — to be seen defending the looting of state resources.

Lord have mercy on us if our leaders cannot separate what is legally right but morally wrong. Do not look to President Zuma for answers. He is part of the problem and a pawn in the game. Our democracy and our future need defending from our leaders.

The media, civil society and trade unions must stand up. Our loyalty should be to the constitution, instead of to leaders. Building democracy is hard work. We cannot afford to be complacent.

Dr Lucas Ntyintyane
Cape Town