By A Correspondent- Human rights defender Owen Dhliwayo has said the reintroduction of the National Youth Service (NYS) has the potential to bring more harm than good for the country ahead of the impending elections slated for 2023.

Dhliwayo’s comments comes amid indications by government that the National youth service was set to be reintroduced nationally.

Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa on Tuesday told a post Cabinet press briefing in Harare that the NYS initiative was important in nurturing young people into becoming responsible and resilient citizens.

Said Dhliwayo:

The reintroduction of the youth militia under the guise of the national youth services is a bad move when we take a look at how it is configured.

The program by its concept is a noble idea but past experiences have taught us that the methodology and training methods that it employed served a destruction purpose which benefitted a particular political party. It has never been about the nation neither has it served any nationalistic purpose.

He added that there is a total shift from the core principles and values of the national youth service where certain political parties use it to maintain political hegemony.

He said:

“In essence, the program should serve the nation because it is not about a particular political party. If government is going to use the same format that we have witnessed in the past, it is a very bad move by the authorities.

Before reintroducing it, they should have engaged and consulted wider in order to come up with a broad based curriculum that is to be implemented. Stakeholders should have an input. For example, the same way that the parliamentary portfolio committees engage citizens on the various proposed Bills, government should have also consulted wider and get people’s views on how they want this to be structured and how it will be approached.

Responding to a question from ZimEye on whether government has the capacity to effectively run the national youth service centres, Dhliwayo said:

“The government has no capacity to run these centres. Look at the social infrastructure in schools, hospitals and even government building, they are in a sorry state. They will take the youths and dump them there without adequate infrastructure available. We have a broke government which is at pains to fund even the simplest of services and they want to reintroduce such a program. They have no capacity.”

Communications expert and consultant Professor Teddy Mungwari echoed the same sentiments adding that the introduction of the national youth service was not necessary as the nation was already grappling with more important issues including a failing economy, unemployment, poor health delivery system and the Covid-19 pandemic.  

“The notion of a youth service is important but there is a lot of abuse that goes on. If you look at past experiences, the green bombers were used to terrorize people during elections and that in itself is not welcome to the nation. They harass, intimidate people in their regalia and they are used as Zanu Pf’s terror militia. A political party does not own it but here we have Zanu Pf abusing it. They are supposed to protect the citizens and not a political party.”

Professor Mungwari said the development also reflected that government had misplaced priorities.

“At the moment, we are battling Covid-19 and we have been begging for masks and even sanitisers for schools but we have a government wanting to reintroduce something that is not really necessary. Why do we even need them? What service do they give to the country? Is it because political parties are preparing for the 2023 elections?

In the past, these youths lived in deplorable conditions where they did not even have adequate food. Maybe we will give them the benefit of doubt because they may have reflected on past failures but for them again to say after training, the youths are automatically the right candidates and they get first preference for particular government trainings such as nursing and teaching is also discriminatory and a violation of the Constitution. All youths regardless of whether they have undergone the trainings must be given equal opportunities. Why should these ones be prioritised?

What government must know is that you do not teach patriotism at a particular institution or college. Patriotism is inherent. So I think when Border Gezi started this thing, he was overzealous and over ambitious. The way that it was done, its curriculum was misinformed and after all, these youths were used for election violence.

We now know that later, the former minister and Zanu Pf Commissar Saviour Kasukuwere to be precise employed them and they were put under public service without any specific jobs where they were actually getting a salary. Recently, if its not 2 years ago, we hear that they were removed but it is not surprising that some may to date still be receiving salaries when they are not even employed anywhere.

How transparent and authentic is it that these “ghost workers” are no longer there? Some even got undue benefits from government while some, at some point were given huge amounts of paraffin. Others walked away with huge monies from Cabs under youth empowerment initiatives for non- existent projects. These monies were used on drugs, girlfriends. We know that Kasukuwere used these youths to siphon money from government. It’s just looting. This is just plain looting.”

NYS was first introduced in 2000 as a brainchild of the late former Youth Development, Gender and Employment Creation Minister, Border Gezi.

However, it is documented that the youths allegedly unleashed a reign of terror in rural areas, targeting opposition activists in the run-up to elections in the early 2000s.

The “Green Bombers,” as they are derisively called due to their all-green uniforms, were accused of committing some of the most heinous of crimes against MDC members during the later part of the late Robert Mugabe’s reign.