Tim Mutsekwa: The future is young

By Tim Mutsekwa

Greetings once again to you all.

l am hopeful life has been kind to you thus far. We have come to the end of another week. Mnangagwa was being feted in Botswana at the Zimbabwe-Botswana Bi-National Commission.

The highlight being the dinner dance which brought some scathing remarks from a lot of people on social media, including Jonathan Moyo who called it ”clubbing or kusvetuka, which is unpresidential.” l would call it the coup shuffle.

All this exuberance in stark contrast to the anguish and poverty he briefly left behind in what is now our Zimbabwe. Which brings me to this week’s opinion piece.

Africa is a unique continent with many positive indicators for growth and expansion, threateningly knocking on the doors of the Asian tigers to overrun them and become the next big phenomenon in the world. For Africans to realise this dream and not go another 100 years walking in potential, there are some fundamental issues that we have to ruthlessly deal with.

They have been named a thousand times, discussed, debated, pondered over, prayed against, you name it but Africans are still unable to deal with the monsters blocking our way to success and prosperity.

We can rattle off our problems in our sleep, corruption, bad governance, dictatorship, western capitalist interests, low education levels, innovation barrenness, civil war and strife, disease and poverty. We can add to this list the terror threats of Boko Haram and other extremists groups abducting and randomly killing our fellow countrymen handsomely aided by our lax and unsophisticated security and intelligence.

Faced with such a multi-layered, complex and varied set of problems, it may be difficult to navigate our way out of poverty and into development and prosperity. Where do we start? Is it a leadership issue or is it a values and identity issue?

The African development gap can only be addressed by a multi-dimensional, multi-pronged and multi-sectoral approach. However I believe the most radical change that needs to take place is the deliberate and urgent inclusion of young Africans into the political space.

The problem is partly due to our long tradition of veneration of our elders. We feel we cannot challenge them or compete with them but that rather a good African will defer to those older than him, listen to instructions and wait to be recognised and rewarded.

This is why in Zimbabwe; a youthful and highly literate population can be led by a 77 year old president and compete for his attention by bootlicking and agreeing with everything that is wrong, ultimately hoping for a reward.

In Zimbabwe there are people who are waiting with bated breath for another change in President. This speaks volumes to our lack of foresight as black people. In a nation of 14 million people, is it acceptable to leave such a decision of great import and weight to one political party.

There are many educated Zimbabweans, leaders of exceptional calibre, leaders that are young and have their fingers on the global pulse. These young people should be grafted into national politics and given space to exercise their talents for the benefit of the nation.

We cannot continue living in the era of the war of liberation in a world that is fast developing and becoming increasingly competitive for resources. We are getting left behind and the gap cannot be bridged by someone who is 77 years old.

This is a reality we have to deal with and ask the necessary question “where are we going?” or rather at this point “where are we being led”. I concede that we have seen some good from these elders, especially in the 1980’s but they are no longer in their prime.

If we are to compare the leadership styles of Uhuru Kenyatta and Emmerson Mnangagwa, we will see that they are worlds apart. One of the most refreshing Facebook pages to visit is that of the Kenyan Leader, he is in touch with technology and successfully uses it to communicate with his people.

Kenyatta is relaxed and seemingly approachable. Mnangagwa is generally tense, ill-fitted and unapproachable (from an ordinary citizen’s perspective). Kenyatta is open to new ideas and has his eyes firmly fixed on the future. Mnangagwa has his eyes firmly fixed on the past.

This obsession with the past determines our national policies and so far we have allowed it to play out. An example of how aged leadership is adversely affecting is in the manner we deal with droughts.

Interestingly, we have had a drought this year and government is urgently looking for funds to import food. A young leader would know that weather patterns in this day and age should not determine food security. We need to start using technology to revolutionaries our agriculture.

Instead we have land invasions, poor data, poor planning, corruption and ineffective and inefficient farming methods. If a desert like Israel can be food sufficient and export surplus to other countries, we have no excuse as Zimbabwe.

We have the best climate in the world and good farming soils for a variety of crops. All that is needed now is young, dynamic leadership that is forward thinking and committed to the cause of developing Zimbabwe.

It is not ageism to state the fact that these old politicians no longer fit into the vision that we need to urgently start working towards. In fact they are hampering our development and have become a burden to us as a people.

They must retire on their farms and pave way for the young and energetic. As it stands, the only direction we are being led in right now is to the graveyard and I for one have no intention of joining them there.

But are the country’s young people ready to get involved in politics?

The signs elsewhere on the continent aren’t hopeful. Given Africa’s youth bulge, in which 39.5% of the continent’s population is aged between 18 and 45, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect the majority of voters would be young people. But this is not the case.

For the most part, young people are apathetic when it comes to elections. While they’re the most affected by democratic processes, they appear to be the least interested in them.

For example in Nigeria’s 2011 polls, only 52.6% of young people voted while in South Africa’s 2014 national elections, apathy was the reason for a registration level of just 33% for 18 and 19 year olds. 

To change this, there needs to be an effort to create political, structural and physical spaces that allow for their meaningful participation. This could, for example, include allocating quotas to young people and prioritising youth empowerment.

Political parties were cited as the main reason (67%) that prevented meaningful youth participation. For example, only 17% believed that political parties were creating spaces and making an effort to level the playing field so that they could participate in elections.

This exclusion is driven by what the scholar and expert on young people, Barry Checkoway, calls ‘adultism’ – when adults take a position that they are better than young people and prescribe solutions for them. Young people are seen as potentially dangerous elements that should be kept away from key decision-making processes.

On top of this, poverty makes young people particularly vulnerable to being excluded. About 70% of young people in Zimbabwe are unemployed.

And those that work experience extreme poverty, earning less than US$2 per capita per day. This renders them susceptible to exploitation and control – young people who are poor are ready to sell their rights, for food hand-outs and promises of jobs that never materialise.

They show a lack of interest in a system they feel they cannot change. They share this apathy with many other Zimbabweans. The legitimacy of the country’s elections since independence has always been a thorny issue.

The opposition has regularly raised accusations of vote-buying, electoral fraud, vote rigging, as well as the intimidation of voters by the ruling party – Zanu-PF. This has led many to question the legitimacy of the electoral process.

Other barriers to young people include a lack of financial resources, lack of capacity, lack of information and the absence of a culture of positive engagement.

Most believed that young people were prepared to run for office in the 2018 elections. But nearly half indicated that young people needed more support, such as leadership training, in preparation for running for office.

Increasing participation

The top five solutions to improving the participation of young people  include:

freedom to participate in politics and development without restrictions  

provision of leadership training  

youth awareness campaigns 

pro-youth policies , and

effective engagement in productive activities .

Young people should be viewed as a vital source of information which justifies the need for adults to give them space and opportunities to engage meaningfully. This could be done through local campaigns, like the United Nations’ ‘Not Too Young to Run’ campaign. This promotes the right for young people to run for office, creates awareness and mobilises them.

Young people also need to be equipped to participate in politics. This includes getting support through leadership training and training in elections and governance processes. Finally, resources and support must be given to youth-led initiatives that are reaching out to young people. 

Till next time.

Tim Mutsekwa (Political Science and International Relations [University of Greenwich], Secretary for Party Business & Investments [MDC UK & Ireland], Twitter : @tsumekwa