Thabiso Nxumalo
WELEAD Trust youth organization has said the Zimbabwean Constitution is not youth-friendly and the recent amendments to it seem to be doing more harm than good to the citizenry.
The organization, that focuses on youth leadership, advocacy and seeks to bring youths together to co-create a safe space for them to lead, said the national constitution limits the inclusion of youths in public offices and as a result their pleas are not addressed.
In an interview, WELEAD Media and Communications Officer Prince Gora said the organisation noted with concern how the national constitution is not pro-youth especially in public offices bearing.
“As an organization, WELEAD Trust is not very happy with the fact that the constitution limits participation of youths in public offices, for example, young people have to wait until 21 to get into parliament and until 40 to get to the senate or run for presidency,” Gora said.
He said constitutional issues in Zimbabwe do not always stem from loopholes in the constitution but on implementation, ultra-vires amendments with some of the laws being born out of the constitution.
“Generally speaking, implementation of the constitution itself is mostly lacking together with other laws of the country not being aligned to it.
“Also, the recent amendments to the constitution seem to be doing more harm than good,” said Gora.
The organization said a lot still needs to be done in educating and engaging youths in constitutional issues and also called upon government to implement section 7 of the constitution.
“There is limited awareness of the constitution. A few young people are even afraid to learn about the constitution and constitutionalism as they see it as being political.
“Also the government of Zimbabwe is not implementing section 7 of the constitution which deals with constitutional awareness very well,” added Gora.
WELEAD launched the “We Know the Constitution” campaign in September 2021 and have so far covered Masvingo, Chiredzi and Chitungwiza, directly reaching out to over 1000 youths.
The campaign, that runs under the hashtag #ConstitutionCulture is targeting youths in an effort to raise youth awareness and literacy of the constitution of Zimbabwe and its implications on youths.
