The tenets of democracy are premised upon effective citizen participation, freedom of expression and assembly as well as the right to vote amongst many others. Zimbabwe takes pride in what it considers as a progressive supreme law of the land. Section 67(d) encompasses citizen participation as it states that ” Every Zimbabwean citizen has the right to participate, individually or collectively, in gatherings or groups or in any other manner, in peaceful activities to influence, challenge or support the policies of the Government or any political or whatever cause “. This is far-reaching as it enables citizens to charter a way forward that speaks to their desire to build a prosperous, fulfilling and an inclusive nation founded on good governance.
As 2023 harmonised elections are fast approaching, the mood and tone by political players have been set resulting in a lot of talk around how to put in place systems that foster meaningful participation of young people apart from what is on paper. Therefore, members of the Legal Perspective Initiative (LPI) who are part of Activista Zimbabwe an ActionAid Zimbabwe’s flagship hosted a virtual platform as part of its monthly talk shows to discuss the role of young people in the build-up to 2023 elections. The talk show was held with panellists drawn across the country namely representatives from ZESN, WALPE, media cluster and two young independent contestants who battled it out in the previous elections. The purpose of that particular episode was to have an appreciation of what has been done so far since the previous elections. What stood out from the onset was the importance of striving to create a democratic space where citizens lead in taking up democratic responsibilities.
This is evidenced by ZESN’s presentation which was centred on the youth development model they crafted. It seeks to address youth challenges by using broad-based strategies around partnerships, participation, peace, policies and laws. The model is also applicable to young people in various levels as it uses a multi-sectoral approach where youths are seen as stakeholders, stockholders, transformational leaders and drivers of change.
ZESN highlighted the journey travelled so far in pushing for comprehensive electoral reforms which resulted in the organisation being tasked by parliament to draft a comprehensive electoral amendment bill following a petition that was submitted on the 3rd of December 2018. What remains to date is that the current electoral act does not enable meaningful youth participation and representation.
This is backed by the fact that youth representation in parliament following the 2018 elections summed up to 2%. Young people want a raft of measures to be considered and these include disaggregating nomination fees by making the fee to be paid by a young person reasonable enough not to hinder one’s political ambition, the bill to make it mandatory for political parties to field women, youth and persons with disabilities using agreed percentage ranges. Upon failing to do so, a penalty should be levied. There was an emphasis on the need to put in place an electoral regulation framework that supports and protects women who are often victims of abuse and exploitation when their image and dignity is stripped as a result of derogatory and abusive language which forms part of retrogressive behaviour.
A representative from WALPE shared more insight about their 2.2 million votes from women for women, where emphasis was made for women to elevate each other to decision making positions. It was highlighted that of late the organisation has assisted some women who are in the informal trading sector who have political aspirations through financing and boosting their business ventures. By helping them grow their businesses, it helps them to be able to draw funding come election time. WALPE has played an instrumental role through capacity building however deep-rooted challenges around funding still take centre stage. One of the independent contestants for St Marys Constituency in Chitungwiza highlighted the predominating culture of transactional voting that bedevils us.
This has failed to tap into a crop of young, informative and innovative leaders as they will be contesting against well-resourced people. She also indicated the continued shrinking civic space that makes people unwilling to participate in electoral processes or view electoral participation as a doorway that will see violence being unleashed to the family of the participant. Thus citizens are still lured by material things a candidate brings forth. They do not take time to assess, query and interrogate proposed policies and future promises. Being inquisitive and conscious leads to a calibre of well informed and grounded young leaders being chosen.
The onset of Covid 19 has pushed people to embrace technology as a tool that gives them a voice. Of late, social media has been awash with various discussions taking place but the bulk of them have centred on the upcoming elections. As this unravels, there is a clear disparity between the urban and rural population as a representative from media alluded. The narrative often peddled is that rural people have no access to social media yet TechZim published an article in 2017 estimating that 5.2 million people are WhatsApp Users. What continues to be a challenge is the continuous rise of data tariffs. Although discussions are done on Twitter, clubhouse and Facebook, young people expressed the need to consider using WhatsApp to disseminate information around the electoral processes since its widely used in the country. The call for young people to claim their future by putting their democratic responsibilities to good use couldn’t have been louder.
Compiled by
Tsepang T. Nare & Reginald T. Sibanda
