Use brains not stones, MDC-T youths told

via Use brains not stones, MDC-T youths told 13 July 2014

A CIVIL society leader has said Zimbabwe’s youths must move away from the culture of toyi-toying and throwing stones in the streets and, instead, contribute ideas to deal with challenges currently facing the country.

Sydney Chisi, who is the director of the Youth Initiative for Democracy in Zimbabwe, was speaking at the launch of a job creation initiative launched by the opposition MDC-T last week.

The MDC-T has vowed to step up pressure on President Robert Mugabe to fulfil his last election campaign promise of creating 2.2 million jobs within five years.

The party’s youth wing is already moving around the country educating youths about the campaign before staging nationwide protests demanding jobs.

The protests could set the youths on a fresh collision course with Mugabe’s government which has in the past violently crushed such protests.

Chisi told the MDC-T party faithful that youths must invest in their intellectual capacity before taking on the government on the streets.

“We do not want a Youth Assembly that just toyi-toyis without investing in reading and understanding what is happening in the country,” Chisi said.

“We do not want a youth assembly that will go into official spaces and not afford to say anything because we are ignorant. Let us take time to invest in our intellectual capacity before we think about throwing stones.”

Chisi said this was because the political terrain had since changed adding “throwing stones will be very minimal but thinking will be the maximum effort that we need to acknowledge ourselves”.

Zanu PF at the weekend admitted that it was facing challenges in meeting its election target of creating 2.2 million jobs before the next election in 2018.

The party said the issue would be discussed at its youth and women’s leagues national congresses due in Harare next month.

“As civil society we will ensure that we continuously create platforms to which we can engage. For anything if were promised 2.2 million jobs the people who made the promise have the capacity to steal and lie,” he said.

“So what we need to do is that instead of demanding the 2.2 million promised jobs we have to ensure that we act to demand and occupy the jobs and ensure that Zimbabwe begins to work again.”