LAST Friday, a private radio station held interviews with a group of youths during commemorations to mark Robert Gabriel Mugabe National Youth Day.
The recordings were aired on Tuesday morning and the youths sounded hopeless.
“We want jobs so that some of us stop engaging in crime such as theft. Many of us are being pushed into such criminal activities because we are unemployed and have no source of income,” one was recorded as saying.
“The only time my life was okay was when I was young, when everything was being provided for me.
“Now I am 37 years old and I don’t know what it means to be employed. I have never held a payslip in my hand,” another one.
The sentiments reflected a disillusioned generation.
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There are many such youths who have never been gainfully employed.
Many rely on part-time jobs.
It’s unfortunate that the Zanu PF government has successfully snuffed the life out of formal jobs.
The ruining party has presided over failure: from unavailability formal employment, closure of giant retailers, capital flight, shut down of industries to brain drain, etc.
The list is endless.
Its policies have ruined everything in this country.
Zanu PF tentacles extend from the Executive, to the Judiciary, the police, the intelligence arms, the media, even social facets such as sport, entertainment.
Zanu PF has poisoned communities in Zimbabwe.
Today if you speak to the youths about casting their votes in a ballot they will walk away.
“It remains the same,” they will respond.
They think the one man one vote system that brought independent in Zimbabwe has been rendered redundant by “rigging”.
To them, voting will not bring the much needed change.
They say in 2018, they voted overwhelmingly for candidates that were not representing Zanu PF, but they were shocked to see Zanu PF candidates being declared winners.
The formal retail system has been disrupted.
Some workers in that sector have been sent packing.
The informal sector has taken over.
Giant retailers have raised the red flag, but it seems the alternative sector is not relenting and no one cares.
Yesterday, the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency said the food poverty line for one person in February 2025 was ZiG868,16 up from ZiG805,95 as of December, with the total consumption poverty line for one person being ZiG1 263,86 in February 2025.
This means that an individual required that much to purchase both food and non-food items as at February 2025 in order not to be deemed poor.
In US dollar terms, it meant an individual required US$50 based on the official exchange rate to buy basic food and non-food items for them not to be regarded poor.
The cost of living is skyrocketing, yet the youths have no means of putting food on the table.
The economy is tanking with no solution in sight.
In all this hopelessness, some Zanu PF apparatchiks are pushing the agenda to have President Emmerson Mnangagwa's tenure extended by two years to 2030.
No one is talking about creating jobs. No one is talking about opening industries so that Zimbabwe can return to full production again.
They are all fixated on power retention.
Many of our youths have turned to drug and substance abuse for solace.
What a lost generation.
What a lost opportunity.
What a lost future.
