THE Green Bombers or the fearsome and infamous National Youth Service graduates are coming back. They will start training next year, but their modus operandi has not been changed and looks likely they will still be a militia for the ruling party Zanu PF.
The news was received with scepticism by citizens, particularly political and civil society activists who were at the wrong end of the trained militia that was notorious for executing extra-judicial punishment for those who opposed the Zanu PF regime.
The programme was initiated in the 2000s after the formation of the opposition MDC that gave a scare to Zanu PF by winning 57 of the 120 contested parliamentary seats barely six months after its formal launch. Zanu PF was on the ropes, the economy was deteriorating after the brief dalliance with the International Monetary Fund’s economic structural adjustment programme.
It remains important that the opposition then was made up of mainly disgruntled youths who had no economic opportunities, retrenched workers and wealthy farmers and industrialists who had their land expropriated without compensation.
The then President Robert Mugabe noticed the youth’s interest in opposition politics. This was a threat to his hegemony since Zimbabwe, like all developing countries, had a burgeoning population — big enough to tilt any national election if they participated to their capacity.
It goes without saying that the 2000 parliamentary elections were bloody. War veterans spearheaded a reign of terror never seen in the country. Many youths in rural areas were displaced, maimed or killed. A lot more were psychologically affected that they decided politics was not only a dirty game but also deadly.
Mugabe thought the youths had repudiated the nationalist ethos and had to redirected to the true values of the liberation struggle. He thought this could be done through getting the youths in National Youth Service, where they were taught about the liberation struggle and national values.
Unfortunately, the programme was hurriedly implemented. The curricula ended up looking like a Zanu PF propaganda treatise. The programme became a party programme more than it was national. The youths were trained military drills and in the process becoming a militia for the ruling party.
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Trained youths became the vanguard of the party. They unleashed political violence never seen in the country. After the 2005 elections, some were absorbed into the civil service. They were prioritised in the allocation of scarce vacancies at tertiary institutions.
In 2008, they became handy and spearheaded the violent presidential runoff election. After the inclusive government, the programme was suspended ostensibly for review. Many trained youths were absorbed into the Public Service Commission as a thank you gesture despite that many of them did not even have the mandatory five Ordinary Level passes to join government service.
Cabinet this week said the programme would resume next year and participants would enjoy the same preferential treatment they enjoyed in the first project.
It said: “The recruitment will ensure equitable distribution of opportunities; equitable regional representation; and equitable gender representation. There will be two training intakes per year, with the duration of each training session being six months. The graduates of National Youth programme will receive first priority into higher institutions of learning including polytechnics, teaching, nursing, the army and employment in the civil service.”
Cabinet added that the programme would train 100 000 youths over the next five years. This is a phenomenal 20 000 annually. The numbers could fill more than half the tertiary education vacancies available, especially those that need the minimum five Ordinary Level passes like joining the security services or nursing.
It should be noted that National Youth Service per se is not bad. However, the way it is implemented here is problematic. It is about a partisan history, used as a wing of Zanu PF. In other words, there is nothing national about it except that it recruits from right across the country.
By prioritising employment of NYS graduates in civil service, defence forces, health service and tertiary education, Zanu PF is giving itself an advantage of creating a hegemony for generations to come. It should be remembered that most NYS graduates are made to toe the party line than the national line.
To put this into context, these so-called national youths have never spoken out against corruption, deteriorating economic environment or the many shortcomings of Zanu PF administration. All we hear is about them complaining about regime change. It has to be pointed that the term regime has its roots in French. It simply means an administration.
Yes, administrations should be changed constitutionally if they fail to deliver or lose the plot. It is not criminal to seek regime change. Unfortunately, wily Zanu PF appropriated the word just like it had appropriated national spirits like Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi or the liberation struggle.
There should be a national discussion about the NYS programme, its recruitment and curricula. Moreover, the recruitment of staff for the programme should be transparent and show diversity and not be a feeding trough for Zanu PF ideologies.
The opposition and progressive MPs should seek answers to the programme’s funding. Its budget allocation should not be allowed to pass without thorough scrutiny.
Above everything else, the programme should be national in word and practice and never allowed to be an appendage of Zanu PF. Never again should it be used as a party militia.
