Marginalisation a major source of conflict in Gwanda

Young people who are active in various political party structures have lamented marginalisation on grounds of ethnicity as a root cause of conflict in Gwanda district.   

Speaking during a political parties forum held in Gwanda, the youths said that lack of education opportunities as evidenced by the low number of schools in their district, high unemployment and unfair distribution of local and national resources were all a result of the marginalisation.  

“As a party we believe that young people should have equal access to opportunities. However the administration and distribution of resources in this country does not reflect that equal access and that makes it a source of conflict particularly in Gwanda,” said MDC-T who added that while Gwanda is rich in minerals, those were not benefiting the area in any way.   

Brain Ndlovu from the MDC spoke strongly against tribalism saying “Zimbabwe’s conflict is based mainly on tribalism which has been institutionalised by the previous government. If you notice, more than three quarters of the resources, especially mines here in Gwanda are owned by people who are not from Gwanda and as such they do not employ people from within our community,” he said who also suggested devolution of power as a solution to such marginalisation and opposition to diversity.    

ZAPU blamed the failure by government to alleviate poverty amongst its citizens, which was making the young unemployed youths vulnerable to abuse by retrogressive politicians.  “Poverty is a catalyst in conflict, and without improving the livelihoods of young people economically they remain susceptible to being used to perpetrate violence,” said ZAPU.

Discouraging the hypocritical approach to tribalism, ZANU PF provincial chairperson Washington Nkomo said that there was need for youths in Gwanda to speak out about these issues instead of pretending that all is well. 

 “I have noticed that we seem to have a see no evil, hear no evil approach to tribalism but the truth is that it is responsible for the high unemployment and poverty which is fuelling conflict in our region,” he said. “Besides, those who are poor can easily be bought to do bad things and as long as we remain poor we remain easy targets,” added Nkomo who also encouraged young people to position themselves strategically to benefit from the indegenisation programme.  

While each leader defended their political party ideology, the youths accepted the fact that there were several key issues that affected all of them as young people from Gwanda regardless of what political party they are from. 

The forum, organised by National Youth Development Trust (NYDT) brought together more than forty young people from the youth wings of MDC-T, MDC, ZAPU and ZANU PF. The objective of the meeting was to interface the different political parties so that they share ideas on how best their respective parties can uphold peace in their communities. The youth leaders agreed that there was need to cultivate a culture of tolerance and regular interaction between them while working together to tackle common challenges.