The government has set up a committee to start de-politicising the controversial National Youth Service through reforms that would be debated in Parliament.

The reforms will look at addressing the rigid curriculum used at the youth centres dotted across the country including dressing among other issues.
Enrollment into the service shall be voluntary and not confined to ZANU-PF youths.
Thamsanqa Mahlangu, the Deputy Minister of Youth Development, Indegenisation and Empowerment, confirmed the latest development saying a committee to reform the National Youth Service had already been put in place.

The National Youth Service has widely been seen as an appendage of ZANU-PF to maintain its grip on power. But with the inclusive government now in place, there was need to de-politicise it.

Said Mahlangu: “The reforms will be taken to Cabinet and be tabled as a Bill in Parliament where an Act would be born…The service should not be run in a partisan manner and it should not include partisan political material or advance the cause of any political party.”

Graduates of the National Youth Service have been accused of perpetrating acts of violence during election time in favour of ZANU-PF, which actions were condemned by a Parliamentary committee in 2007.
In its report, the youth committee chaired by the then ZANU-PF Member of Parliament for Gutu South, Shuvai Mahofa, revealed how youths and soldiers fought over food and how female recruits lived in constant fear of sexual abuse by their instructors.

The report said youths frequently went to bed hungry, with MPs expressing horror at the dilapidated structures that had no doors or windows resulting in students complaining about finding cats and snakes in their barracks.
“The committee was informed of an incident of violence involving army personnel, a unit of the operation Maguta programme based at the centre, and National Youth Service students. An upheaval arose over the issue of delays in the serving of food and one student had his arms broken,” the report said.
“Since the inception of the National Youth Service, there have been some worrying reports that female trainees were being sexually abused by male instructors or by fellow male trainees.”

Godwin Mureriwa, a research specialist who was instrumental in the drafting of the National Youth Service curriculum, said the intention was to mould a disciplined, entrepreneurial and patriotic youth and not for the trainees to engage in any rogue activities as alleged in the past by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

“We were teaching concepts that are global like democracy, the rule of law and entrepreneurship,” Mureriwa said. “The curriculum advocated for a political orientation that is respective of our aspirations as Zimbabwean people, a politics that is mature to know what is good for the country.”

Meanwhile, Mahlangu spoke on the on-going audit regarding ghost workers in the public service saying: “the audit is still ongoing. I have been tasked by the Minister (Saviour Kasukuwere) to look into the whole thing.”
Kasukuwere told Parliament last month that his ministry had initiated an audit in the ministry, following allegations by MDC legislators that ZANU-PF had put National Youth Service graduates on the government’s payroll for campaign work they had done for the party in last year’s elections.

Additional Reporting by The Financial Gazette

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