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Nqobile Tshili, Sunday News Correspondent
DEVELOPMENT of local communities through devolution of power could reduce the number of youths migrating to other countries to seek greener pastures, a local non-governmental organisation has said.
Government has started making inroads towards implementing devolution of power which will see provinces economically competing to develop their local communities. In an interview on the sidelines of a youth devolution workshop held in Bulawayo, Habakkuk Trust director Mr Dumisani Nkomo said despite the global movement of people phenomenal, devolution of power can reduce the number of people leaving the country. His sentiments come following decades of people in Matabeleland region migrating to South Africa and Botswana to seek better opportunities.
“It’s our hope that once there is devolution of power, there is going to be acceleration of development because people would be benefiting from local resources. People will benefit from value addition and beneficiation of natural resources. That will result in young people being employed and this would result in the creation of vocational training centres where young people can be equipped with various skills. However, it (reducing migration) will obviously take a long time. It will not be achieved in one or two years. It could take five to 10 years but the journey begins now. Once people are in charge of their resources, they can be in charge of their destinies in terms of development. It becomes easy for them to see home as an option.”
He said, however, a lot of young people need proper education on the benefits of exploiting local resources for economic transformation. Mr Nkomo said a lot of youths leave the country to work in the neighbouring countries yet sometimes the grass is never green on the other side.
“You will find out that some of the youths don’t even make more money in South Africa or Botswana. But it’s the issue of the mindset that on the other side its greener yet in many of those countries people are mistreated. So we need to dovetail this (devolution of power) with a lot of career guidance, economic development and economic empowerment for the youth at a community level creating vocational centres. If these things are addressed they can ensure there is less exodus of young people to other countries.”
@nqotshili
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