Alert: NYDT Officers arrested in Lupane

Police have arrested three NYDT officers in Lupane. The arrested officers are Senior Programmes Officer Bhekumusa Moyo, Assistant Information Officer Prosper Ndlovu and Logistics Officer Meluleki Dube. The charges against them are not yet clear. The three were arrested while conducting consultative meetings with various councillors in Lupane to share notes on youth programmes that the organisation intends to implement in the District. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights have since been notified and are expected to establish the reasons for the arrest soon. The NYDT shall keep all partners informed of any new developments regarding the arrest of the said officers. 

Methodist Youths Lament Marginalisation

Youths from Methodist Village, located in peri-urban Bulawayo, have blamed their lack of interest in voting processes on the lack of accountability and consultation by their elected leaders.

Speaking at a focus group meeting organised by the National Youth Development Trust (NYDT), the young people said that the last time they interfaced with both their councillor and Member of Parliament (MP) was during the campaign stages of the 2008 elections. Despite being the poorer parts of the constituency, they claimed that the MP even failed to allocate a portion of the Constituency Development Fund to them but concentrated the fund in the urban side of his constituency.

“Even our MP seems to have forgotten about us because we only heard that there was CDF but all of it was used to benefit Urban Pumula,” complained Thembinkosi Mafu. 

They blamed the delimitation process for joining together their area (peri-urban) with an urban area to form one ward as a major contributor to their marginalisation in developmental processes. They instead called for the separation of Peri-urban Pumula from the urban side of Pumula. “It is obviously difficult for one person to serve both a peri urban and an urban area so to me the solution would be to separate the two so that at least we are adequately represented,” suggested Calvin Dube.   

The challenge of inadequate representation was also cited as the reason why most young people have chose to stay away from voting. However at the end of the meeting it was agreed that more young people from the area should register to vote as this will oil their campaign for the designation of their area as a separate constituency.   

Young women speak out on lack of participation

Young women from Luveve high density suburb met at the Luveve Youth Centre to interrogate the reasons for poor participation of young women in national and local developmental and political processes.

 The young women highlighted  parental consent as a major challenge to their effective participation, saying that they needed to explain to their parents how such programmes are of benefit to them before being allowed to attend, if at all they are allowed. This, they said does not usually apply to their male counterparts.

“It is difficult for us to participate in national processes and general activities that have to do with development as our parents prohibit us from attending. If allowed, we have to explain to our parents why we need to attend these activities and how they will benefit us. If there are no immediate benefits we are not allowed to attend,” said Selinah Dube.

She further said, “Our biological build has contributed to us being prohibited to attend meetings as we are viewed as the vulnerable group that will fall prey to men and may later bear the consequences of unwanted pregnancy.”