AT LEAST 150 MDC-T youths yesterday defied a police directive barring them from holding a procession from Town House to Harare Gardens as part of commemorations to mark the Day of the African Child.
The militant youths gathered at Town House yesterday morning and resisted an order by more than 20 anti-riot police details to desist from the march as they threatened to retaliate if police continued to block their “democratic right”.
The MDC-T youths embarked on their march despite the heavy police presence and arrest of their leader Denford Ngadziore for resisting a police directive to call off the demonstrations.
Unperturbed by Ngadziore’s arrest, the youths chanted the opposition party’s slogans and continued with their march which was largely peaceful. The march ended at Harare Gardens where speaker after speaker hailed Zimbabwean youths and urged them to “prepare to fight and die for their rights”.
Some 60 heavily-armed anti-riot police details in three trucks kept a watchful eye on the demonstrators monitoring the proceedings from a distance after failing to stop the march.
The youths said this year’s theme — Demanding Accessible, Affordable, Quality Education, Jobs and Equal Opportunities For All — was conceived to pressure the Zanu PF government to create employment opportunities.
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They gave President Robert Mugabe until July 31 this year to deliver jobs or risk civil unrest.
The youths held placards, demanding the Mugabe government to give them jobs as per their election promise while singing and chanting party slogans.
At Harare Gardens, the youths openly attacked Mugabe and the failure by Zanu PF government to deliver election promises.
MDC-T deputy youth organising secretary Happymore Chidziva in his address said: “From July, we will use all means necessary for us to get our jobs. Youths are angry and for 15 years we have been patient with him (Mugabe), but now he must go.
“The month of July is the month of action. On July 31, we would have taken action to make sure he is gone. By all means necessary, Zimbabwe will be free.”
Provincial youth chairman Shakespeare Mukoyi added: “There is nothing we can demand from this dictator and get because he has nothing to offer except killings, rape and corruption. The only thing we can demand from Mugabe and make sure we get to improve our livelihoods is to make sure we push him and Zanu PF out of office.
“If you take it as a joke, I tell you, we cannot move Mugabe an inch from office.”
Youth national spokesperson Clifford Hlatywayo challenged Zimbabwean youths to emulate their South African counterparts who on June 16 1976 staged demonstrations which culminated in the Soweto Uprising demanding their rights.
“They were young just like us, they were poor just like us, they were jobless just like us, they were unarmed just like us, they only carried their banners demanding their rights saying they were not happy with the way their country was being run,” Hlatywayo said.
The apartheid South African police quelled the demonstrations by firing teargas and live bullets on the students, killing several of them.
Commemorations of the Day of the African Child originated from that incident.
Hlatywayo added: “We have problems with getting jobs, we must take action. If Mugabe is our problem, we must take action. If the police trouble us, the solution is action.”
MDC-T national youth secretary for security and defence James Chidhakwa said: “We have lost a lot of cadres along the way. We lost Tonderai Ndira, Joshua Bakacheza, Godfrey Kauzani and many others at the hands of Zanu PF. They died demanding their rights to be respected. This day we continue to demand our jobs.
You made promises, we demand those promised 2,2 million jobs. Too much fear brings misery to our land. Let us be bold and demand what is rightfully ours.”
But Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo yesterday described the MDC-T youths as a “bunch of paid-up gangsters” and warned that the ruling party would deal with them if they decided to engage in violent activities.
“They are just paid-up gangsters that are demonstrating to get money. We have enough security to deal with that nonsense and for them to suggest that the Zanu PF government has failed within a year is nonsensical. We are implementing our policies and as far as we are concerned, we have enough security to deal with them,” Gumbo said.
Mugabe and the police have often warned that they will take stern action against unsanctioned demonstrations.
Similar commemorations were held in Bulawayo and Chitungwiza provinces over the weekend.
