The Zimbabwe government plans to expand the controversial youth training programme, the recruits of which have been criticised for serious rights violations, reports said on Monday.
The announcement by Youth Minister Saviour Kasukuwere in Monday’s official Herald newspaper comes less than a year ahead of crunch presidential and parliamentary polls.
In the past members of the National Youth Service — dubbed Green Bombers because of the army-type fatigues they wear — have campaigned for President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party.
”The National Youth Service is a noble idea that should see youths contributing positively towards community and national development through the life skills they gain there,” Kasukuwere was quoted as saying.
”Currently, we don’t have the capacity to train everyone but ultimately we will get there,” he added.
Independent reports suggest youths in the camps undergo military-type training and are taught to see the opposition and Western countries as enemies.
They have also been accused of perpetrating rights abuses, especially in the run-up to key elections. But the youth minister said the programme would be expanded despite the criticism.
Kasukuwere said the government plans to have all youths go through the training programmes. He did not give figures on how many people it would enlist, but recent independent reports have suggested the figure may be as high as 15 000.
Youths trained under the programme have been used as labour on government-owned farms or recruited into the nursing corps, the police and the army, he said.
”Just recently, the chief nursing officer commended national youth service training saying that youths coming from our institution were well disciplined and that’s not all as the police and army have also done the same,” he said.
Zimbabwean police have been criticised in recent weeks for detaining and torturing dozens of opposition officials and activists in a state-sponsored crackdown against dissent. — Sapa-dpa