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International Youth Day message
MDC Youth Assembly
August 11, 2011

The MDC Youth Assembly joins the rest of the world in commemorating this year's International Youth day. This is a very important day for the youth of today and the youth of tomorrow. We are here today because of the decisions or indecisions of the youth of yesterday and the youth of tomorrow are also largely affected by our decisions or indecisions today. It is high time as the youth we realise that the future belongs to us and our destination is determined by the route we take today. We in the MDC Youth Assembly have put in place the pillars of our struggle in the theme of our movement. We have realised that we can only succeed if we are together to the end . . . building a Youth with a Difference; and being Driven by Pride, Determination and Resilience.

Together to the End

We envisage a united youth of our country. This refers to the unity of purpose in promoting economic and social development for all Zimbabweans. It is only when we are united across the political divide that the vision of a truly free Zimbabwe can be realised.

We believe that the youth of this country must have equal opportunities for development. We believe that equal opportunities will not be guaranteed by the current government policies particularly on indigenisation and other economic sectors such as farming and mining. We believe in pro-poor and broad based youth empowerment policies because we are poor and we are diverse.

We also believe that youth empowerment should not be based on a system of political patronage but become an inherent natural outcome of self-actualisation produced from the basic tenets of empowerment of which quality basic education and employment for all ranks high. We do not believe in premature accumulation of wealth as that is not sustainable for the current and future generation.

We believe that the youth of our generation has been denied a role in the mainstream economy and have been side-lined in the national consensus dialogue. We believe that our generation has been impoverished by the neglect of the ZANU-PF administration on the youth on meaningful national projects. We want the youth to play a meaningful role in sustainable development. We want the youth to own houses, investments and fixed assets as has not been the case in the past. We want the youth to be involving in sustainable utilisation of our natural resource which include the allocation of farming lands and mining projects, including the necessary support required for the effective and sustainable utilisation of such.

To achieve this, we ought to move as one united voice of the young people, yearning for a sustainable future and not the destructive and populist policies that we have seen destroying our livelihoods in this past decade.

Building a Youth with a difference

The youth of our country has long been used as political appendages by the previous administration. Brother has been turned against brother. Our fellow young man and woman in the security sector have been used to harass their own parents.

Instead of empowering the youth through decent education programmes and employment, the Mugabe administration created a Boarder Gezi youth programme for patronage and marginalisation. The product of this youth service is being used today as gate keepers for the wealth that has been looted by greedy elite.

The youth must rise and shine with a difference. In other developing countries the youth are largely involved in formulating and implementing their own agenda of empowerment and development.

We believe that the youth of this country must first treat themselves with a difference. They should do this through registering to vote and vote wisely thereafter, shunning violence, by demanding quality basic education and capacity building programmes, demanding adequate space to develop in their own country. Above all, they should do this by refusing to be patronised by hand-outs of their own natural resources as implements of patronage.

We can only be a youth with a difference if we redirect our focus to issues of national interest and development. Peace and stability are pillars of development. The youth of this country must reject violence. The youth of this country must stand up for themselves and not depend much on the greedy old generation that has destroyed the fortunes of a once beloved country.

The MDC Youth Assembly envisages a crop of young people participation and challenging for space in the main stream economy and politics. We envisage that we can in fact be the leaders of our own destiny. We envisage of all the things, the reality that the young people will be the rightful engine of the economy. The world is moving faster now, only recently we were using Nokia 5110 and now we all have BlackBerrys. The point is we as the youth we can adapt to the fast raging changes of our society. The old liberation guard cannot sustain the pace of this world. Only last week did they get laptops, remember that?

We will be our own liberators. We will chant the new course into a new Zimbabwe where the young people become the backbone of nation in all sectors.

Driven by Pride

We believe that as the youth of this country we should be proud of our well-resourced and climatically super country. We still command some of the best standards of education, morals, discipline, peace and inherent capacities of this world.

We should first be proud to be Africans. We are proud as the MDCYA to be directing the ship into a new course of youth development and empowerment. We are proud to be building a youth with a difference. A youth that talks, finance and not money; a youth that talks livelihood and not life; a youth that talks empowerment and not impoverishment; a youth that talks peace and not patronage; and a youth that fairly understands that they are the future and that the future belongs to them.

Driven by Determination

As we moved together, we have shown the courage and determination to demand change and demand a better future for our generation. We have shown the determination to achieve that goal.

This determination gives us the extra energy to fight for what we believe in. We believe we are determined to see a united African youth. We believe we are determined to see a youth with a difference. We are therefore determined to be the change that we want to see. That determination is a key component of our resolve to be meaningful not only to ourselves but to our country and those that will live in it long after us.

We will not tire along the way because we are driven by the determination to see a brighter future for all young people.

Driven by Resilience

The regime has turned sister against sister. The regime has suppressed the wishes and aspirations of the youth through a divide and rule tactic. The regime has used violence and suppression to silence the voices of those yearning for a place in the main stream economy and politics. We are here today and we will still be there tomorrow demanding the same space.

We have been driven by resilience and courage. Resilience has seen us through torture bases and camps; resilience has seen us through murder and harassment. A while ago we used to run away, but since they removed the leg now we can only lean by the walls and fight back. We used to fight with our fists but since they awarded us short and long sleeves now we can only shout at them with our mouth.

The bottom line is against all odds, we are getting there, we have suffered but resilience has given us a head start to the challenges that lay ahead. As we are commemorating this year's International Youth Day let us remain together to the End . . . Building a Youth with difference as we remain Driven by Pride, Determination and Resilience.

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