Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe plans to make service in his youth militia a prerequisite for high school graduates entering college or the job market, reports said on Tuesday.
The youth militias, aligned with Mugabe’s ruling party, were involved in brutal attacks on the opposition during presidential elections in March, human rights groups said.
The move is viewed by observers in Zimbabwe as part of Mugabe’s efforts to encourage its minority white and Indian populations to leave the country.
Mugabe’s critics say he has been exacerbating racial tensions in the country in order to deflect attention from the nation’s crumbling economy.
”It is envisaged that youths with the prerequisite qualifications … will not be admitted into institutes of higher learning unless they undergo national service,” Higher Education Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi told the state-run Herald newspaper.
Teacher colleges last week reported receiving directives to accept students who had been in the youth militia over students who had not served, even if those applicants were more qualified.
Mumbengegwi also said that those students who had recently completed degrees would need to show official certificates to prove they completed national service before being employed.
”(The decision) was meant not only to instill a spirit of nationalism and national consciousness, but also (to) arrest the current brain drain,” Mumbengegwi told the newspaper, ”We cannot continue to be a training ground for people who are not committed to the development of the nation.”
With the economy on the brink of collapse and a food crisis looming, many Zimbabweans have left the country. Head of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai, has demanded the disbanding of the youth militia, now several thousand strong, as a condition for resumption of reconciliation talks with Mugabe’s party.
President of the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Union, Leonard Nkala, denounced the move and demanded clarification on how and to whom it would be applied. – Sapa-AP