Why the youth should be part of ZimFirst.
By Everette Chambwera, ZimFirst Youth Director
The country’s incapable leadership has often excluded and overlooked young people in the political field. Zimbabwe’s political field has been typically regarded as a space for politically experienced old men. Young people are systematically marginalized because of their age and perceived lack of experience. In the words of Dr. Maxwell Shumba, the Party’s President, ‘The formation and entry of ZimFirst Party onto Zimbabwe’s political field is set to permanently alter the direction of things for a country grappling with its worst crisis ever’ , ZimFirst Party believes the Youth are the Game Changers in this unfair discriminatory political field.
PRIORITY
ZimFirst Youth Directorate seeks to integrate young new members better and give them the opportunities to work on issues that motivated them to first join the party. Most parties in Zimbabwe and across the world are not focused on advancing the capacity of their young members. Without a comprehensive program and/or proper curriculum to build the skills of youth, young people will not have the capacity and confidence to be active in politics. This gap in skills has led to the lack of youth representation. Mentorship is one critical way offered by ZimFirst Party to help build a generation of dedicated and action-oriented legislators capable of developing well-articulated policies in Zimbabwe.
BREAKING THE STATUS QUO, YOUTH FOR YOUTH
Before the entry of ZimFirst onto Zimbabwe’s political field, in the past decades the youth have been facing many issues in the country, but these issues went unheard. Since the youth would better understand other young people, the best way to improve this newer generation would be through collectively working together as we fight for Accountability, Honesty and Unity as per our party motto, which is a tool used to take action for development.
As a Government in waiting, the only way ZimFirst can create Youth-centric policies is through engaging the youth in the process of policy formulation and incorporating them into the party. Engagement with national politics on youth-defined issues could prove a powerful way of allowing young members of the party to interact with the formal policy making process. By giving young people the opportunity to work on issues that concern them, Zimbabwe can become a better place again and would emphasize the importance of active membership within our party.
YOUTH ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
On a more elevated stance, contrary to the fallacies preached by other parties that they can execute miracles to transform the economy, our approach to Economic development is feasible. ZimFirst Youth Directorate wishes to inform the natives of this country that Economic Development is a collective mandate for every youth owing to the fact that they are rich with fresh ideas. It should be noted that the Government in waiting aims to empower the youth, not only poilitically but more importantly economically giving them opportunities in the process of development.
CAMPAIGN PLATFORMS
We use social media as our main campaign platform after it came to our realization that the best way to engage with younger generations is to speak in their language. Social media is the fastest and easiest way to communicate the party’s goals with our target audience. Zimbabwe is a vast country with a 16.337,760 million population with 6,721,947 social media users and ¾ of the users are youth. By using social media, we want to reach our young peers, for example, who live in the remote areas of the country, which is challenging to engage in regard to physical reach. We also use Instagram and Facebook to broadcast live interviews with our legislative candidates and other campaigns.
The party’s manifesto alludes to the fact that the vision for a new Zimbabwe requires political courage and popular democratic support backing that courage. ZimFirst wishes to let you know that the aforementioned vision requires solidarity and determination from the youth. As ZimFirst Youth Directorate, our message to our beloved nation of Zimbabwe is clear, it is time for older generations to realize that the youth have a strong capacity and determination to contribute to the economic development of the country. As for my fellow young people, Zimbabwe needs us more than ever!
Nyika Vanhu, Vanhu Ndiyo Nyika!
Abantu Lilizwe, Lilizwe Ngabantu!
Country First, People First, ZimbabweFirst!
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