Chronicle Editor
Dr Obert Moses Mpofu
COMRADES, we have an important task on our hands. The most prolific liberators of this land were quite young when they made the decision to make the ultimate sacrifice and fight for the liberation of our land. Zimbabwe has quite an impressive demography in terms of our youth, with this group making up more than 60 percent of our population. These individuals are among the brightest on the planet. They are educated, enterprising and are doing quite well as entrepreneurs, all thanks to the policies that have been introduced by the Zanu-PF led Government, which has seen our youth being immensely empowered economically.
Success among our youth is impressive and we are more than proud of their achievements. This is after all what we envisioned when we liberated Zimbabwe. We always wanted to see our own prosper in their country of birth. Simply put, it is this group of our population that is key to our country’s future. We need to tap into this demography to ensure that our national interests are forever maintained.
There is therefore much work to be done in terms of ideological orientation among our youth. They need to truly understand what our country stands for and ensure that they maintain our values. We cannot afford to have our identity weather away. Our youth should exude this identity in every facet of their lives.
They should be inclined towards national pride. National pride stimulates hard work and results in our positive outputs for our nation.
However, the task is far from easy. There is much work to be done. We seem to have two sets of youth, those who are aware of their nation’s interests and those that have no idea what it means to be Zimbabwean. It is the latter that have been lost to opposition politics and have been enticed by our detractors. They are the ones that have become the lost generation and need saving. They will be saved through the efforts of national institutions such as the Chitepo School of Ideology as well as the National Youth Service. These are efforts that will be instrumental in building the right kind of cadre that is required to spur our nation forward. It is by the blood and sweat of yesteryear’s youth that our nation was saved and it is by the strength of our youth now that our nation will be built towards prosperity.
We will achieve this through tapping into the numerous generations that make up this nation.
Experience from the older generation and strength of the younger generations combined together will spur our beloved Zimbabwe. Such a scenario presents a very interesting and delicate case. There is a need to strike a balance between the old and young, the old and the new.
The young should tap into the old as much as they can while the old should ensure that they instill and impart the proper values and ideology to the young. We have very little time to achieve this task. The enemy is not resting and has been making concerted efforts to subvert our efforts at every turn. They have been on a recruitment drive to turn some of our youthful against their beloved land. They have made sure to undermine our national values and make them less important. Several efforts have been made to misdirect the younger generations from the national objectives and channel them towards activities that waste their time and are detrimental to the national agenda.
It is the youthful among us, with the guidance of our experienced veterans that will come to defend our nation. This is not an easy task, which is easier said than done.
Our people, especially the young generations, enjoy freedoms that we only ever dreamed of during our youth. We delivered on these freedoms and we now live in a free nation where there is no persecution. In fact, our Constitution guarantees the right to self-determination. One can be whatever they want and rightfully so, Zimbabweans have exercised this right to the fullest extent. All economic sectors are now dominated by our youth, from top Cabinet and political spaces, up to the business sectors, our youth are taking the lead.
Be that as it may, there is a conundrum. Not all our youth have an understanding of our national interests. Zimbabwe like any other country has its national interests and aspirations that must be met. We cannot afford to compromise on our national interests. We must hold firm in that regard. There is therefore a need to embrace initiatives introduced by President Mnangagwa’s Government such as the National Youth Service. These initiatives serve as conduits for imparting national ideology, which is critical for success.
Our young should thus be conditioned in such a way that they harbour the right form of ideology. The Zanu-PF party will make all concerted efforts to ensure that we save the lost generations from the jaws of our detractors who are bent on ensuring that their mission to derail our agenda succeeds through misdirecting our younger and youthful generations. Zimbabwe’s national interests will always be met and we will not compromise on that. The Zanu-PF Party will save the seemingly lost generations.
ν Dr Obert Moses Mpofu is an academic and the Secretary- General of Zanu-PF. He writes in his own capacity.
Bongani Ndlovu