Online Reporter
Farirai Machivenyika
Senior Reporter
SPEAKER of Parliament Advocate Jacob Mudenda has challenged youths to be aware of technological developments happening globally as they have a direct impact on their future endeavours.
Adv Mudenda said this while opening the two-day Youth Model Parliament that began at New Parliament Building in Mt Hampden yesterday.
The Youth Model Parliament is an initiative of the Parliament Youth Caucus that was launched last year, targeting young people between 18 and 35 years old to give them a voice on governance issues that affect them.
“The rapid advance of digital technology and Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the nature of work, learning and civic participation. This technological revolution will define your generation’s economic landscape. You cannot afford to remain observers while its architecture is designed.
“Instead, interrogate what measures the Government is taking to equip you with the digital skills this era demands. Examine what safeguards are in place to ensure that automation does not displace youth livelihoods without offering new pathways to opportunity. Above all, insist on inclusion not merely as beneficiaries of technology, but as co-designers of Zimbabwe’s digital future,” Adv Mudenda said.
The Speaker said youths should also be cognisant of climate change, the challenges it poses and measures to mitigate its effects.
“Climate change is the defining and existential challenge of your generation. It is your generation that will bear the consequences of the environmental decisions taken today.
“Food sovereignty, water security and national resilience depend on deliberate and informed action. Accordingly, your engagement must be substantive because environmental stewardship cannot be deferred to another generation,” Adv Mudenda said.
The Chairperson of the Parliamentary Youth Caucus, Cde Stanley Sakupwanya, urged the Youth Parliamentarians to take advantage of the platform brought by the Youth Model Parliament.
“Today ( yesterday), we are opening again a space for young Zimbabweans to speak, to question, to debate, to lead and to imagine the Zimbabwe they want to inherit and will one day be responsible for building.
“For the next two days, these are not merely seats in a parliamentary chamber. They are seats of responsibility. They carry the communities you come from and the aspirations of millions of young Zimbabweans who could not be here but who are counting on you all the same,” Cde Sakupwanya said.
The Youth Model Parliament is being held with support from the Zimbabwe Youth Council, the Zimbabwe Institute and the Ireland and Switzerland embassies.
Debate on issues will be held today after the Youth Parliamentarians went through orientation yesterday.
