GOVERNMENT’S controversial National Youth Service training programme has reportedly hit a snag with trainees at Dadaya Training Centre being sent home before completion of their three-month course due to severe food shortages, NewsDay has learnt.
BY TATENDA CHITAGU
Recruits who enrolled on June 18 this year said they only attended classes for two weeks and were told to go home and come back for another two weeks in time for graduation in August.
“We were supposed to be housed for three months, but we only spent two weeks and told to spend six weeks outside and come back for another two weeks when we will graduate,” a trainee who declined to be named, said.
“This was caused by food shortages. We were given two meals per day of a little sadza and cabbages. On better days, we would get beans. Some of the trainees could not cope and were fainting during the daily 10-kilometre run while others were starting to show signs of malnutrition,” another source said on condition of anonymity.
But, Youth, Indigenisation minister Patrick Zhuwao (pictured) yesterday denied the food shortages reports, saying they had “refocused” and changed the duration of the programme from 12 weeks to nine weeks.
“There are no food shortages. We have simply refocused and changed the duration of the training. You called me with an agenda already. We had successful graduations in Tsholotsho recently and other areas,” he said.
The controversial programme, dubbed ‘Border Gezi’, was introduced by the late ruling party’s national commissar Border Gezi to indoctrinate Zanu PF youths with party policies and history.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
It was suspended during the era of the coalition government between Zanu PF and the MDC formations, before being re-introduced by government, with sceptics questioning the timing of the resumption of the training.
Most of the graduates with requisite qualifications have their names forwarded to various government departments for jobs and automatically qualify ahead of others who would not have participated in the programme.
