Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. ZANU PF reportedly offered to transport its youths to the ongoing Zimbabwe Agricultural Show (ZAS) and reward them handsomely in return for them making rehearsed contributions at a public hearing by parliamentarians.
The Parliamentary Committee on Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture on Friday held a public hearing in Epworth, a largely informal settlement outside Harare, to discuss the reintroduction of the National Youth Service (NYS).
NewZimbabwe.com reported a source as saying ZANU PF youths were promised food and free transport to the show if they submitted coached contributions during the meeting. Said a youth:
First, we were asked to regurgitate coached submissions at the public hearing, and thereafter go to the showgrounds.
A ZUPCO bus has been organised specifically for us, but if they do not give us transport to the show and the food they promised us, we will boycott the next ZANU PF event. They cannot take us for fools.
After the public hearings had adjourned, a ZUPCO bus was spotted ferrying the ZANU PF youths to the ZAS official opening ceremony.
Meanwhile, the majority of the youths that attended the public hearings in Epworth intermittently disrupted the proceedings.
The National Youth Service was an initiative of the late ZANU PF stalwart, Border Gezi, at the turn of the millennium.
The youths were accused of unleashing an orgy of violence against MDC members in rural areas.
The government plans to revive the programme next year with 5 000 recruits expected to enrol.
The Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, Kirsty Coventry, said the reconfigured NYS will be apolitical and the recruits will be given first preference for jobs in government.
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