Rise up and take the lead youth told

Youths in the country have been challenged to take a lead in changing their circumstances by participating in democratic and electoral processes.

By Moses Chibaya

Speaking during the  commemorations of Day of African Child, Election Resource Centre (ERC) Communication and Advocacy Officer, Tatenda Mazarura, said youths are the game changers.

“The turning point of every struggle is when the youth show wisdom, courage and resilience to ensure that their voices are heard. This is the only way that they can protect their inheritance and future,” she said.

Mazarura said the challenges facing Zimbabwe today, are more or less the same as the challenges that were faced by the youth in apartheid South Africa.

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“The imposition of ideological ethos, pledges, rampant corruption, mal-practice, mal-administration, economic decline, unequal distribution of national resources and the general ineffectiveness of the current generation of leaders in Zimbabwe who are pretending to fight for the youth, when they are not youth, has a negative bearing on the future of the youth,” Mazarura said.

Mazarura said youth’s demographic superiority, if leveraged, could determine the outcome of elections and quality of leadership and governance across the continent.

“The spirit of the African child that was shown by brave South African youth in 1976 and elsewhere around the world in the fight for liberation must flow in the blood of today’s youth as the country enters into a phase for a fight of the socio-economic and political freedoms. Zimbabwean young men and women must be prepared to shoulder the burden of reform on their young but energetic shoulders. It should therefore be the responsibility of young people to shape the future of the nation. The youth should not be by-standers in democratic and electoral processes,” she said.