BY TAFADZWA KACHIKO GOVERNMENT has been urged de-militarise and de-politicise the infamous National Youth Service (NYS) programme before re-introducing it next year.
The National Association of Youth Organisations (NAYO), an umbrella body of local youth organisations, the Community Advocacy Development Association, Vision Africa and other youth groups made the call when they appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Youth yesterday.
“NYS should not be re-introduced until government reforms its curriculum by removing military training or militarism. The curriculum should integrate human rights, peace-building and conflict mitigation and prevention and transformation syllabus,” NAYO monitoring, evaluation, research and learning manager McDonald Munyoro said.
“Government should appoint a commission of inquiry into the alleged human rights violations and violence committed by the past graduates in order to establish what actually went wrong, to draw lessons from the historical past and to initiate a programme that heals the people’s wounds — particularly those who suffered at the hands of misguided graduates.”
The programme, introduced by the Zanu PF-led government in 2001, folded up in 2007 due to underfunding.
Opposition parties often said Green Bombers were used to perpetrate political violence against their supporters.
Some of their notorious activities were documented by Physicians for Human Rights, based in Denmark, and Amnesty International, among other rights groups.
Committee chairperson Mathias Tongofa (Zanu PF) told Munyoro that they would seek opinions of other stakeholders on their demands.
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“We are in the process of finding facts from the Executive and other youth organisations so that we come up with a comprehensive report that will be tabled before Parliament for debate,” Tongofa said.
Government announced plans to revive the NYS programme last month.
