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Sukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
YOUTHS have pledged to preserve the gains of the country’s independence through active involvement in various empowerment programmes.

They noted that liberation war heroes had passed the baton on to them and now they had a duty to further the achievements gained through the liberation struggle.

“The independence that we attained and continue to celebrate every year came as a result of the liberation struggle. The liberation fighters played their part by shedding their blood so that we could enjoy the freedom that we have today,” said Moses Mhango, a youth from Plumtree.

“Therefore the ball is now in our court as youths to ensure that we fully utilise the opportunities that come with being independent in order to develop our country.”

He said youths throughout the country should desist from shunning empowerment programmes that were crafted to benefit them.

Mhango said once youths learn to appreciate their role in furthering the gains of being independent, then the country’s economy would improve.

He said the significance of work done by liberation fighters for the benefit of the youths could not be over-emphasised.

“A number of liberation fighters aren’t educated today but we can’t blame them because they took to the bush so that we could get a chance at education,” he said.

“They were deprived of a chance to education themselves but they fought to win that right for youths. Today we’ve access to unlimited heights in education and we’ve the chance to excel academically.”

Mhango said the revolutionary struggle had also brought economic empowerment for the youths.

He said a number of youths were now proud owners of valuable assets, something which blacks could not do during the colonial era.

The government has special facilities for youth empowerment. Many of them have been allocated land under the land reform programme while others are proud owners of mines. There is also the Youth Fund, meant to provide business loans to youths aged 35 years and below with no need for collateral.

Mhango described today’s government as youth friendly as a number of policies had been formulated to empower youths economically.

Furthermore, Mhango said youths were now able to freely participate in the country’s politics.

“Today we’re exercising our freedom of expression through various platforms that have been availed to us. To me, gaining independence has been more beneficial to the youths than any other group of people,” he added.

“We’ve been granted a fresh start where we’re surrounded with countless opportunities unlike the liberation fighters during their time. We’re relevant within the global village because we’ve been capacitated intellectually and liberated mentally.”

He said youths now had to direct the skills they have acquired towards developing their country and not neighbouring countries.

He said it was the duty of every youth to get educated, either academically or through acquiring technical skills, in order to contribute in developing the economy. Noting that the liberation struggle was not for the purpose of producing an ignorant generation, he said there was a need for government to revive some of the programmes that were used to subsidise the education of youths like grants. Also, he said strategies had to be put in place to broaden the coverage of government education funds like cadetship and other government scholarships.

He said a number of young people, especially those in rural areas were still failing to access education because of financial challenges.

Mhango said there was also a need to have more youths benefitting under the land reform programme through allocation of land.

Most veterans of the liberation war left school, university and their jobs while they were still young. To some extent, they were comfortable in their situations, but realised that the comfort was hollow and uneasy without independence. So they went to Zambia and Mozambique from where they took part in the independence war until freedom came on April 18, 1980.

Another youth from Plumtree, Nkosilathi Sibanda said there was need for government to formulate a deliberate policy to ensure that youths equally benefitted from the country’s resources.

“Youths can do a lot of good to the country if they are given an equal opportunity to access resources such as mines and farms as well as other investment opportunities.

“In fact, if youths are to preserve the revolutionary gains they have to enjoy its fruits first, then they will have a clear understanding of what they are obliged to preserve,” said Sibanda.

He said the youths were the best natural resource the country had, hence they had to take a leading role in reviving the economy. Attaining independence, Sibanda added, could be equated to the biblical story of the Israelites when they were taken out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land.

Sibanda urged his fellow youths to have a sense of ownership by being actively involved in celebrating Independence Day.

“It’s a pity that it’s mostly the elderly people who attach importance to the Independence Day celebrations whereas it should be us the youths at the forefront,” he said.