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National Youth Service in Zimbabwe:
'A national service to develop the nation or a Hitler, Mussolini, Kamuzu Banda inspired ZANU PF Project to develop a militia to serve a dictator's inevitable downfall'
Tinashe L. Chimedza
Harare, August 21, 2003

Email the author at tinashe_chimedza@yahoo.co.uk

Prof Masipula Sithole: a respected academic and national revolutionary wrote in his book, Zimbabwe, Struggles within the Struggle.

We again congregate to put out our views and brains together in a constructive debate about engagement that is supposed to bring transformation in our country, it is now unargued that the country has been brought to its knees by a tinpot dictator who is marshalling all his energies to cling onto power; not surprising to me therefore is the fact that the ‘National Youth Service’ has been brought up when ZANU PF and especially Robert Mugabe is facing the toughest challenge to his rule.

For us to explore the issue of the National Youth Service there are various questions that we must raise and that this presentation will attempt to interrogate.

We must be aware that for Robert Mugabe and especially Jonathan Moyo they have been deliberately prostituting principle and tactic, they have sought to ‘legalise’ through an ill-gotten Parliamentary majority and push through obnoxious and immoral pieces of legislation. So to start with we know the history of ZANU Pf; they pushed through POSA, AIPPA and General Amendments Act.

The National Youth Service as an animal and monster or as a darling for those that designed it is a product of the National Youth Act which was rushed through Parliament by ZANU PF power crafters. The Act is a result of National Youth Policy whose origins and drafting is only known by people like Absolom Sikhosana and Hon Kasukuwere who are the best representation of ZANU PF’s youth wing.

It is presented and argued here that the National Youth Service is a militia development project for ZANU PF and their dear leader, one Robert Mugabe. The use of force, intimidation, torture, rape, murder, harassment and food denial are Ku Klux Clan, NAZI style tactics reminiscent of the holocaust era. But for this to be achieved the principle of National Service is prostituted by power merchants who desire to build for themselves what Hitler and Mussolini built for themselves in the indoctrinated youths whose brief was to banish any opposing views.

This behaviour is far too routine, documented and known to be called a National Service, it is what it is; after all what good can come out of Jongwe house.

It is important that we clearly bring out the character of this Youth Service, well-documented research and reports reveal the following factors.

1. The Graduates of the Project are known to be the gatekeepers and marshals only at ZANU PF rallies
2. They have been marauding villagers and demanding ZANU PF cards from every one.
3. In some cases they have set up defacto roadblocks harassing travellers, stealing people’s property in the name of national integrity and sovereignty.
4. Innocent villagers and mothers have been raped, harassed, abducted and tortured at bases set up by the Graduates of this program. A girl confessed being routinely gang raped and infected with HIV/AIDS.
5. The curriculum of training is not known to anyone except for Chinotimba and maybe Mararike/Chivaura who have been teaching national ethos.
6. They have been storming people’s houses, stealing their property, taking livestock to feed people at bases.
7. In areas like Rusape, Rushinga, Mutoko and Zvimba they have been searching buses and private vehicles for independent newspapers. 

The world has had international history of the youth service projects; take here the message of NAZI Hitler to the Aryan ace children.

In Hitler’s mind, young Germans were the key to the success of the nation. In speech after speech, he declared:

Is this not true when the National Youth Service graduates are declared the ‘Third Chimurenga War Veterans' at the Heroes Acre by Mugabe. Is it a coincidence that the graduates are like Hitler’s Aryan Children always singing and shouting Hail Mugabe, Hail, just like Heil Hitler Heil!

It is clear that the National Youth Service talked about here is neither national, nor youthful nor a service. It is a principle that has been in Masipula’s words ‘deliberately and consciously adulterated or prostituted’ by a regime using force to intimidate its own citizens. There are various steps that need to be taken up by young people’s organisations, civil society organisations and progressive political parties, with crucial support from the poor workers and peasants whose children are being taught what they do not know.

1. We must demand an immediate stop of the program as it is only intended to please the power innuendoes of ZANU PF
2. Youth organisations, churches, workers and the government must reengage each other to redefine sovereignty, national integrity and national service.
3. Militia bases set up by the graduates must be disbanded. As we talk in this hotel a Base is being erected in Makonde with one agenda - to beat the village people into voting ZANU PF.
4. If the talks are going to be meaningful for transformation in Zimbabwe, the government must move immediately to repeal repressive apartheid legislation, go through Constitutional reform and disband militia camps.

There is a better and progressive National Service that we the citizens of this country must demand,

1. We must demand and have a functional economy, which creates jobs, which generates forex, which is transparently owned and controlled than the Mawere, Chiyangwa and Kasukuwere dominated.
2. We must demand a working and functional health delivery system
3. Demand and have a sustainable and accessible education system
4. We must demand cash in our Banks, we must seek the resignations of the Minister of Finance for dumping the economy.

In Matigari, the renowned African revolutionary and academic Ngugi Wa-Thiongo says;

The inevitable is on the wall. Anyone progressive and determined to influence political processes in this country must understand that ZANU PF is as old as ZANLA forces, as old as the apartheid regime, as old as the Mussolini regime, as old as NAZI Germany, and its leader as inspired as Machiavelli’s Prince.

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