Speech by Cde Tawanda Moyo at the launching of the Young Zimbabweans for Economic Freedom (YZEF)

November 28, 2014 · by Tawanda

Ladies and Genlemen, I am honoured beyond words to be hereat the conception of this great idea.
In December 2010, one Faida Hamdi, a Tunisian police officer confiscated the wares of a 26 year old vendor named Tarek al-Tayeb Mohammed Bouazizzi and allegedly spat and slapped him. Bouazizi reacted by demanding to see the governor and when his request was denied he doused himself with petrol and burnt himself.

The self-immolation of Bouazizi sparked a widespread uprising that spread to many countries and resulted in the ouster of the Tunisian President Zein el Abidine ben Ali in January 2011 and the subsequent toppling of authoritarian regimes across the Arab world such as Mubarak in Egypt, Gadhafi in Libya and Ali Abdulla Saleh in Yemen. It also sparked the Syrian civil war which is still ongoing to this day.

Other countries such as Jordan and Morocco were forced to introduce reforms as a result.
This is an example of the so called butterfly effect where a hypothetical butterfly flapping its wings, say, in Mexico can cause air currents that will result in a Cyclone in Mvuma after five weeks. Or perhaps the legendary apple that fell on Newton’s head and changed physics, particularly the fields of dynamics, forever and made it possible for us to have cars, aeroplanes and rockets.

In other words, this highlights the unimaginable and far reaching consequences of small actions.
Which is why we are gathered here today, to see the birth of this seemingly great idea, whose potential to change the world is great.

Secondly as young people the future belongs to us and we must make sure that when it gets here, it is a better place. To make the future better we must take charge and work towards that objective. The primary way of achieving this is through education and as Malcolm X said, “Eduaction is the passport of the future. The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
Yet education places on us a burden. The burden of questioning. And this is an important burden because it is the only way we can improve our societies.
The African American author James Baldwin observed this in a talk he delivered to teachers in 1963. He said:

“The paradox of education is precisely this- that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated . The purpose of education, finally , is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself , to make his own decisions , to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself whetehr there is a God in heaven or not. To ask questions of the universe , and then learn to live with those questions , is the way he achieves his own identity.
But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around . What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society. If a society succeeds in this , that society is about to perish. The obligation of anyone who thinks himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it- at no matter what risk. This is the only hope society has. This is the only way society changes.”

This is the obligation that Makomborero, in launching YZEF has taken upon himself, and it is an obligation I hope other young people (and old) here , will also take up. He has asked important questions about us, as young people, and the society we live in.
How can we empower ourselves? How can we shape our destinies, why are we living as we are and how can we change this?

We must, and will do so, in the full knowledge that we will face a lot of resistance. Society hardly welcomes change, even when beneficial.

Those who demand change are ridiculed, resisted and fought. We see this in all the political parties. People who challenge the status quo will find themselves in the political wilderness. But these are the important people. In their time Robert Mugabe, Mnangagwa, Mujuru, Tekere, Tsvangirai and others challenged the status quo and demanded answers.
Without their actions there’d be no Zimbabwe or in the case of Tsvangirai, Biti, Welshman etc no MDC.

Institutions such as YZEF are important for many reasons. In Why Nations fail the primary reason why nations fail is not history, geography or being cursed by God as some prophets would have us believe, rather it is because of weak institutions. Thus we must applaud this new institution, which we hope will strengethen us as a nation and also inspire other young people to start their own initiatives.

Finally I want to thank Mako for being unreasonable. We were sceptical about this, and I will freely admit that. However he convinced me and many others. His tenacity and unreasonableness are his greatest strengths.

As George Bernard Shaw remarked, “The unreasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

May you always be unreasonable comrade- with moderation of course. After all “Moderation in all things.”
Let me conclude by quoting Frantz Fanon, in wreteched of the earth “We must shake off the heavy darkness in which we were plunged, and leave it behind. The new day which is already at hand must find us firm, prudent and resolute.”

May this organisation have the butterfly effect.

And may the tomorrow we desire find us firm, prudent and resolute.

Thank you
 

Speech by Cde Vivid Gwede at the Young Zimbabweans for Socio-economic Freedom (YZEF) Launch

Date: Friday, November 28, 2014.

Dear Comrades, National Democrats, Friends, Young Patriots, And Revolutionary Cadres of the relatively new but obviously visionary organisation of national youths, all envisaging socio-economic freedom in Zimbabwe here gathered.

As we launch this organization, a new vehicle for our socio-economic struggles, there is a reminder at the back of our minds that the past 34 years of Independence have been un-fulfilling, disappointing and of late openly retrogressive in terms of the national socio-economic progress. The continued failure to bring this prosperity may historically confirm the colonialist’s propaganda that the African is not capable of self-governance if unrectified. This is the betrayal visited upon us by the ruling class.

This progress should have been made by our national government, to vindicate the broken sweat, the shed blood, and the extinguished life of fellow youths who rendered the ultimate sacrifice in the 1970’s in bringing down the unthinkable evil of colonialism.
It is that young cadre, who never saw the new day of independence, whose sacrifice we must defend now from the throes of continued betrayal in pseudo-nationalism and partocracy (rule by a party as exposed to rule by a collective government). Indeed for us, Josiah Tongogara and other young fighters, never aged or became some old men and women living in opulence, mansions and high offices, but remain ideological youth, foot soldiers with us in different eras.

Next year, 2015 will be a unique year in that all those classified as youths will be people, who never saw the colonial day, but still know oppression and exploitation from our supposedly new day, that confronts us through black faces. We who never saw the armed struggle and them who never saw the worrying post-independence material circumstances of the national peoples share a special connection and have a telepathic link through generations, and we must learn from them.
As Franz Fanon educates us every generation has its mission which it has to fulfill or betray at the end of the day. While confronted with their situation, they thought in terms of action. Che Guavara cautions us that: “The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.”

While today we do not fight with arms; we will have to still tand on our feet, be foot soldiers together and arms-in-arms to seek socio-economic freedom without which the concrete foundation of independence, the sovereign stone-walled and beautiful house of post-independence Zimbabwe, remains without a roof largely exposing us to the social weather-elements of poverty. Haunted by unemployment, many youths have sought solace in drugs, crime and prostitution, all dangerous routes.
We are ensnared by the privatisation of basic services such as water, transport, education and health. A young generation which has not productively worked in the current high unemployment scandal, whether university graduates or not, will not afford the services. But what is most heinous deed is the privatization of Zimbabwe itself and its important national institutions by a small ruling class.

Nigerian Writer Chinua Achebe’s theme of political classes that ‘steal more than the people can see’ in his book Man of the People, characterized in the stealing of a blind man’s walking stick, rings true for our situation. Our key collective natural resources such as diamonds have continued to disappear into the bottomless pockets of a ruling class that has mutated from being servants of the people, and thrown away the socialist leadership code crafted in the 1980’s to avoid financial abuse of national office, and the people’s institutions. Even the land on which we walk, most of it has been privatized, as we see few people have looted vast tracts of farmland.

Everyday we see the national and municipal police chasing vendors, stealing from them. We see the police stealing from the poor nation through bribes in broad daylight. Even those amongst us who are working and employed, after breaking their backs in the few factories have to face our taxman who is among the most vicious in the world. They have to support huge families of unemployed kith and kin. Yet they earn below economic expectations, something more pronounced among youth employees who are always junior staff in shocking income variances.

It is a national proposition that is hard to accept, therefore, that the incorporation of a few youths into the system through the meager empowerment funds is what can change our collective material conditions. The best way to free a woman/man is allow her/him to productively work for herself/himself as well as create wealth for the whole nation of Zimbabwe.

All these contradictions in the system must be addressed. Thus YZEF must organize, mobilize and strategise to safeguard the socio-economic rights enshrined in the new Constitution of Zimbabwe.
Therefore, esteemed colleagues, it is no one but ourselves who must liberate Zimbabwe and now. I, therefore, conclude by saying the launch of YZEF is a happy occasion.

Thank you!!! Vox dei Vox populi!!! Aluta Continua!!!

VIVA ZAMBIA’s GOLDEN JUBILEE INDEPENDENCE VIVA

Revolutionary greetings unto you our revolutionary brothers and comrades in Zambia.

We are writing to you in congratulatory of your 50 years of independence from one of the worst form of oppression earth has ever known in the form of colonialism. It is with a congratulatory tone that we are joining you in spirit and vision in celebration of your Golden Jubilee of celebrations of self rule and the establishment of Democracy and self rule.

We would also like to acknowledge the effort that great revolutionary leaders and fighters for independence like Comrade Kenneth Kaunda and other heroes who dedicated their time, life, and personal resources to liberate the nation and set the platform and foundations for Zambia’s academic, political’ religious and socio-economic freedom that are manifesting in you as you celebrate this great day that Zambia redeemed itself of the colonial yoke after years and years of excruciating nationalist struggle against imperialists.

It is indeed true that without their basic political instinct and a progressive vision of Zambians’ self rule things would not surely be the way they are as of today and Zambia’s liberation also set the target and also served as an inspiration to our own liberation as Zimbabweans.

As today’s youths, we should and still continue to be inspired by the dedication and commitment that our revolutionary predecessors dutifully exhibited when they led and fought the liberation struggle for Zambia which finally came in 1964.

The main reason why Zambia’s heroic sons and daughters fought was to sow the roots for not only Zambia’s today’s youth but also for us youths in Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa to reach a state of social equity that is characterised by a constitutional, fair and just distribution of rights and resources for these are just but the true fruits of independence and self rule and for this we are truly grateful for what they did not only for you our brothers in Zambia but for us all as young Africans.

As YZEF, we stand inspired by this selfless sacrifice and indeed as a generation we must also follow suit and answer to our own generational call and discover our generational mission which we should unequivocally fulfil with relative opacity. We must pick up from their vision and also strive to see that as a generation we also manage to make the independence that Zambia acquired 50 years ago transform into meaningful socio-economic freedom for today’s African youth and also set up the revolutionary tone for future generations as Zambian wartime and independence heroes did for us.

YOUNG ZIMBABWEANS FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC FREEDOM

By

Makomborero Haruzivishe (Director)

YZEF INTRODUCTION

MISSION

 

Advocacy for Students and Youth Development

 

DESCRIPTION

YZEF is a youth economic development research and educational institute that is aimed at leading youths to economic freedom through robust advocacy and practical representation. YZEF is a youth organisation working at coming up with the best and implementable solutions that will foster an economic vision in youths to work progressively to empower themselves, develop their immediate communities, and contribute to national development through sustainable economic projects and initiatives. YZEF hopes to achieve this through integrating youths for peer engagement, advocacy, direct engagement with the government , partnering with civil society, the corporate world and other probable key players that can assist youths acquire economic freedom.

 

GENERAL INFORMATION

YZEF is a youth organisation aimed at dealing with the key problems that have currently been identified as gross unconstitutionalism coupled with lack of transparency and clarity in key government institutions responsible for youth empowerment.non implementation of economic policies that affect youth and loopholes in functional policies has also been cited. More so, this has virtually led to the total sidelining of youths in the economy of Zimbabwe thus relegating them to destitution and beggars. This has prompted youths from various sectors, students, graduates, not so educated, the unemployed, those running SMEs, peasants and some who are working for the government but earning peanuts to unite under YZEF and organise themselves for a common goal. These youths either hail or are operating from various provinces of Zimbabwe thus it has made the networking of youths from diverse economic and geographic positioning. We had our initial meeting in Harare and a declaration which amounted to the immediate economic liberation of youths being established and YZEF hopes to achieve this through effectively representing youths to the government, facilitating youth economic discussions countrywide, offering practical economic education to youths, reviewing government youth policies and advocating for their implementation, implementation of the new constitution and fostering a Zimbabwe that is characterised by constitutionalism as most of the economic barriers youths are facing can be addressed by the implementation and adherence to our national constitution, creating economic networks with the civil society, corporate world and probable key economic players...in our road to economic freedom for youth.