Nkayi Registry refuses to register, sets police on youths

Officials at the Nkayi registry office had to call police officers to disperse a group of determined youths who refused to leave their offices without being registered to vote.

After several failed attempts to register in the past few weeks, a group of close to fifty youths said after they had provided all that was necessary to get registered including having their village heads personally vouching for them, they were still turned away.

“First we were told that the office wants to deal with those applying for identity (IDs) and birth documents before they attend to us. Then they said our letters of proof of residence were forgeries. When we went to fetch the village heads that wrote the letters, they demanded that we bring letters stamped by the chief” said one frustrated young man.

After half an hour of waiting and the youths insisting that their letters were genuine enough to get them registered, the district registrar who identified himself as Mr Ngwenya appeared and addressed the youths saying he would not register them unless they told him which party they belonged to.

When the youths refused to divulge this information being adamant that they were citizens and had the right to register regardless of political affiliation, Mr Ngwenya called the police to disperse the youths.

The action has been condemned by rights and youth groups working in Matabeleland with the director of the National Youth Development Trust (NYDT) Mr Liberman Bhebhe calling the Nkayi registrar’s actions as “illegal” stating that his organisation is willing to approach the courts to compel Ngwenya and his subordinates to comply with the laws of the land.

“Even if these youths were from a said political party, they still deserve to be registered if their documents are in order. Zimbabwe uses an open roll system and this mandates the RG’s office to register voters at anytime that they present themselves and their documents at the RGs offices. Voter registration must be treated like any service every Zimbabwean is entitled to,” he said.

The refusal by various RG branches to register voters for useless reasons like staff shortage and it not being their core function, has led to wide calls within civic society to have the duty of registering voters moved out of the RGs office and put under the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)’s mandates as the RG has proven to be incompetent in that regard.

An Appraisal of the Medium Term Plan within the Context of the 2012 Mid-year Fiscal Policy Review

The recent pronouncements in the Mid-Term Fiscal Policy review are framed with the framework of Medium Term Plan (MTP) which was enacted by the Government in 2011. The legal provisions of Section 103 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe read together with Section 7 of the Public Finance Management Act oblige the Minister responsible for Finance to provide full and transparent accounts before Parliament indicating the current and projected state of the economy, the public resources of Zimbabwe and the fiscal policy of the Government.  In that regard, the fiscal policy review becomes a critical benchmark to measure and monitor the progress that has been made by the government in upholding the set objectives of the plan. The NYDT as a youth focused organisation is very much interested in this review offering bias on the efforts by the government towards youth empowerment. This commentary examines the current policy review and juxtaposes this with the pronouncements made under the MTP.

According to the report by Minister Tendai Biti on the mid- year Fiscal Policy review on the issues concerning the youths and women, the government has instituted policies that, "Enable women and youths participation in the mainstream economic activities for example, National Youth Policy, National Gender Policy, Mining Policy, Land Policy and Small to Medium Enterprises Policy."

The report further indicated that as a drive to support such policies, the government has instituted funding facilities such as the Indigenisation and Empowerment Fund, Youth Development Fund, Mining Industry Loan Fund, Women Development Fund and SME Fund that are meant to “facilitate indigenisation, youth and 

women’s access to skills training and affordable credit as well as expand employment opportunities”.

Hyde Park Youths Lament Lack Of Development Of Their Community

Young people from ward 17 encompassing Pumula and three peri-urban villages of Robert Sinyoka, Methodist and St Peters have lamented lack of income generation projects in their area amid high unemployment levels in the country. 

They said given the fact that it is already difficult enough for educated people to get employment, there is no need for them to bother looking for jobs as the economy is clearly not creating any. Instead, the youths called for a diversion from focusing only on formal education at the expense of vocational skills training.     

“The majority of young people in our areas are not only unemployed but uneducated as well. So we need a training centre that will help us improve on the skills that we already have and that we can use to generate income for ourselves, “said Sithabile Ndlovu. 

The youths acknowledged that there are some negative perceptions about their community, attributing these to high levels of crime by a couple of unruly elements within the community. Despite this, economic conditions have not helped the situation either as young women have to turn to prostitution as a means of survival, while others settle for menial jobs such as being maids.  Lack of sexual and reproductive health information in the area has also immensely contributed to increased numbers of early pregnancies, the spread of Sexually Transmitted Infections and a high HIV prevalence rate. In this regard, the young people pleaded with the partner organizations present at the meeting to come up with the necessary interventions that will ensure an improved way of life for youths in the area.  

First time voter Campaign launched

Youth representatives from ZANU PF and the two MDC formations have endorsed the first time voter campaign, dubbed X1G campaign, a meaningful engagement of youths in electoral processes.

Addressing youths at the launch of the campaign, ZANU PF Youth National Secretary General, Leslie Ncube emphasised the need for young people to participate in elections in positive light. He also urged them to be tolerant of each other despite their diverse political backgrounds and affiliations. Fortune Mlalazi from the MDC also underlined the need for youths to respect each other's ideas for the betterment of the country. Adding on to those sentiments, MDC-T provincial youth chairperson, Themba Nyathi said that youths should effectively participate in the elections and become a vibrant force in setting up a youthful agenda.

“Unless young people begin to be active in voicing their issues and positively participating in elections, youth issues will not be given space.  As young people we need to be proactive in setting the youthful agenda for the nation,” he said.   

Press Statement on Elections and Constitution

On the 23rd of June, 2012, the NYDT consulted youths from Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South, drawn from its membership, political parties, youth movements, church organisations and youth focused civic society organisations on the non-negotiable demands that ought to be underlined for them to effectively participate in the upcoming referendum and elections. The youths stated that:

·         No elections should be held before a people driven and centred constitution is adopted and that constitution to be acceptable to them must have:

a)       Uncompromised inclusion of devolution of power as a part of the governance architecture

b)       Broad based bill of rights that safeguards the right to education, shelter, health and life

c)       Establishment of independent commissions which include, Human rights commission, Judiciary services commission, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, Media commission and more importantly a national youth commission, among other independent bodies.

d)       A shift in the majority age from 18 to 16 years and young people in that age must be allowed to vote and be voted for political office