National youth service training - Solidarity Peace Trust

Despite Gezi’s claims in his October 2000 National Youth Policy document, at no point since the June
2000 election was the issue of introducing national youth service ever publicly debated in a meaningful
forum by civil society, existing educational institutions, or the churches. 47 Once the system was in
place and the general public became aware of the real nature of the training and to feel the impact of
the youth brigades in December 2001, protests began, but by then the system was operational.
In the early stages, when the programme was being presented as “voluntary”, there was no need for
legislation regarding participation. However, in July 2002, it was announced that the youth service
would be “compulsory”. There has been talk of a Bill to be presented to parliament for debate by Elliot
Manyika, since August 2002, 48 but so far this has not in fact occurred. The compulsory nature of the
national youth service is therefore legally dubious. 49 This notwithstanding, the Government is already
enforcing its proclaimed policy that those who do not have a national service training certificate will be
denied access to employment in the civil service, and to all post school training facilities funded by
government, including vocational training, universities and colleges. Since the beginning of 2003,
qualified candidates have had the experience of being initially accepted to nurse training or teacher
training, only to be asked for their youth training certificates on arrival at the relevant institution.
Failure to produce these has meant dismissal from training. 50
F. July 2003: weapons training advocated in camps
Early policy statements from government officials had consistently played down the militarisation
aspect of the youth training, concentrating on its skill building potential and its patriotic elements. In
January 2002, Elliot Manyika publicly denied that there was any military aspect to their training, and
this position was publicly maintained throughout 2002, in spite of clear and mounting evidence to the
contrary. 51
As early as January 2002, army sources confirmed that while the director of the National Youth
Service, David Munyoro, was a civilian, the unit was at that time run by a military man, retired
Brigadier Boniface Hurungudu. At the same time, the Border Gezi Training Centre was run by colonel
Josphat Shumba of the Zimbabwean army, who is a former director of Military Intelligence; out of the
47
A University of Zimbabwe lecturer, Dr Solomon Nkiwane is quoted in the Chronicle 26 April article as “urging
Government to consult extensively with stakeholders in education before implementing the programme”, noting that at that
stage this had not occurred. Earlier in the 90s such discussions may have taken place, but in the very different political
climate of a one party state.
48 The Zimbabwe Independent, Harare, 23 August 2002: “Manyika to table controversial bill in Parly”.
49 One assumes that the National Service Act of 1976, which forced white school leavers to join the Rhodesian army, is not
relevant, particularly considering the youth of the current trainees.
50 Interviews by authors with affected school leavers in Midlands. This new requirement has given rise to a new black
market product – forged national youth service certificates, for those families who do not want their children to do the
training but want them to have the chance of tertiary training! The other option of avoiding youth training is to have highly
placed parents. One nurse training hospital has reported that they received a directive in January 2003, that out of 24
training placements, 12 had to be reserved for youth militia, who would be referred by head office directly, and 12 places
could be chosen through normal selection procedure. In fact, out of the 12militia placements, 3 were militia and the other 9
were allegedly relatives of influential people. Of the 3 militia, one has already dropped out of the training, as she had not
wanted to be a nurse in the first place.
51 The Herald, Harare, 8 January 2002: “Youth training is not military training”.
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