PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe must immediately resign as both head of state and chancellor of all universities as he has failed the thousands of youths who are graduating from higher institutions of learning every year only to end up in the streets.
Speaking at the launch of a book titled “Towards Democratic Developmental States in Southern Africa in Harare last week, Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT) Director, Lucy Mazingi said no sane person would cling on in the face of such failure.
“You can’t be proud of capping 40 000 graduates every year. You cannot have sleep when all the graduates you cap go into the streets to sell sweets. I would resign,” she said.
Mazingi said young people bore the brunt of poverty and unemployment and were getting more and more agitated a situation she said was becoming a ticking bomb that could explode anytime.
She said the youths now realised the power that they had to change their own world, hence the actions by groups such as #Tajamuka and others who were demonstrating against the government for failing them.
Mazingi said it was not right for the government to force everyone to be businesspeople, adding instead, it should create opportunities and allow those who prefer to have jobs have them.
“A lot of adults are running away from their responsibilities. Instead of reviving the manufacturing sector and create opportunities they want to force everyone to be in a business. Some want jobs and they should be made available,” she said.
The youth leader also took a swipe at some development partners who she said only centred their youth programmes around reproductive health and sex, instead of coming up with empowerment programmes, adding that most government programmes for youths were not sincere as they were always announced during election time.
“There is more that we can do besides sex and reproductive health. You need to look at holistic empowerment programmes but what we see are programmes that coincide with election times. Why for instance, must we have a new youth bank instead of strengthening the existing banks?” she queried.
She also castigated the government for being heavy handed when dealing with dissenting voices and urged youths to take reasonable measures to ensure they create opportunities in all economic and political spheres.
“Young people must participate in all political and economic spheres of life. They need to take up political positions because this present old generation has failed so it is important to go out and register to vote and defend your vote,” she said
Zimbabwe’s more than 20 universities are churning out hundreds of thousands of graduates every year, the majority of who are finding themselves without jobs as the country’s industry has collapsed.
Figures from Labour indicate the country’s unemployment rate stands at a staggering 95 percent, with the majority of the economically active adult population is now in the informal sector, most of them into vending.
