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Africa Day commemorations - 25 May 2011
Heal Zimbabwe Trust
May 25, 2011

Heal Zimbabwe joins the rest of the continent in commemorating the 48th anniversary of the founding of the Organization of Africa Unity (OAU). The OAU was established on May 25, 1963 with the main objective of promoting unity and solidarity of African states. In 2002, the OAU became the African Union (AU). The commemorations come under the banner 'Escalating Youth Empowerment for sustainable Development'. This is a day to reflect on the progress Africa has made so far and revert to the founding principles and objectives of the African Union and work towards rebuilding a strong and vibrant continent. It is also time to reflect on the challenges facing the African continent as a whole and come up with strategies on how youth can be empowered for sustainable development. It is a day when the continent should be celebrating unity and the long held objectives of self-determination, rule of law and democracy. Regrettably, these principles remain remote and "alien" to the realities of African people as they are violated with impunity in the majority of our countries.

One of the founding principles of the African Union, principle (m) states that there should be respect for democratic principles, human rights, the rule of law and good governance but of late cases of internal conflicts and wars have been recorded where the youth are the victims as most of them are recruited into the army to fight their own parents. It is regrettable that political leaders are failing to develop young people who are productive, instead, they use them as political weapons to attack their fellow countrymen. Youth have suffered the blunt of abuse by politicians and Heal Zimbabwe would like to castigate the use of youth in training camps under the guise of National Youth Service where they are made to harass and intimidate civilians especially during elections. This has been recorded in Zimbabwe and on 14 May 2011, civil society and youth in Nigeria were seen demonstrating against the existence of this dreaded youth service.

African heads of states should be reminded of the need to uphold principle (n) of its founding principles which emphasizes the promotion of social justice to ensure balanced economic development. Africa has been a victim of poor and ill planned policies which instead of benefitting the larger populace for example youth as clearly stated in the Youth charter of 2006 has ended up benefitting few greedy political leaders. African leaders have failed to transfer and utilize knowledge from the young people most of whom have migrated from the continent in search of "the good life" robbing Africa of the necessary expertise.

Lastly, Heal Zimbabwe applauds SADC, AU and ECOWAS for their efforts towards fulfilling one of its objectives of promoting greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and the peoples of Africa. The sudden development of teeth by SADC on the Zimbabwean crisis where it is pushing for a clear road map towards elections should be welcomed. It marks a plausible departure from usual solidarity between politicians in suppressing the popular will of the "peoples" of Africa.

"The dream of the African solidarity is fully realized when African leaders realize that the world does not owe us a living."

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