IT is undeniable that Africa’s young people are not simply a demographic wave but an entire ocean. They are, to quote Dr Wangui Kimari, “the demographic, creative, labour and political majority”.

Africa is, by far, the youngest continent on the globe and is set to remain so for the next 30 years. The average median age on the continent is estimated to be 19,7 years, in contrast to median ages of 30,6 in Asia and 41,7 in Europe.

Given the complexities and challenges the continent faces, there is need to harness ideas from across the population divide — men, women and youth — to propel Africa forward. While inclusion and diversity policies have largely focused on gender, there have not been similar concerted efforts focused on the youth.

Leadership on the continent must strive to become increasingly more youth-led. Only about 3% of the continent’s population are over the age of 65, yet the average age of African leaders is 77. This puts the average age gap between citizens and their leaders on the continent at about 48 years.

What this represents is a severe distortion of representation and leadership. Despite what many have referred to as a “demographic dividend”, young Africans continue to be marginalised and evidence suggests that this demographic dividend is not being harnessed.

Business as usual isn’t working

Therefore, it cannot be business as usual. The nature of the challenges facing Africa requires a new kind of responsiveness. The demand for new thinking and innovative solutions has seldom been greater and these solutions are created at the nexus of experience and new thinking which will be enabled by intergenerational efforts.

But those intergenerational dynamics can be challenging. Reflecting on his own experience, David Sengeh, chief innovation officer at the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation of Sierra Leone, said: “What was important was for me to learn how to engage with the age mates of my father and uncles – the societal and cultural dynamics can be very difficult to navigate. What helps with Youth leadership, the intergenerational dynamics are the technical contributions you make which make your presence invaluable at the table.”

Theory into practice

The Africa Youth Charter, adopted in 2006 by African Union (AU) member States, is a political and legal framework which was intended to enshrine the rights, duties and freedoms of African youth. Specifically, the Charter seeks to ensure the constructive involvement of youth in the development agenda of Africa and their effective participation in decision-making processes.

Despite it being signed, ratified and deposited by the large majority of AU member States, its operationalisation has been patchy and extremely slow. There has been a lack of earnest commitment to it and uptake by AU member States. As we enter 2020, young Africans remain conspicuous by their absence at decision-making tables.
This situation is untenable for several reasons. Firstly, there is a lack of representation as Africa’s key institutions continue to be governed by leaders who do not represent the largely young populations they serve. Generally, the governed want to see themselves reflected in the structures that govern them.
Secondly, current leaders are doing themselves a disservice by not drawing on the large talent pool to help them co-create solutions to Africa’s most pressing challenges. And in some cases, the solutions can only be generated by young people in this technological era.
“It is important for young people to occupy key leadership positions, but not just any young people. It is the young people who have the energy, focus, intensity, risk appetite, passion and single-minded drive to deliver well-articulated burning visions. The vision carriers who can efficiently and effectively translate visions into actions, implement and deliver on clear goals for a common objective. These are the young people who can build an impactful government, a thriving nation, and a prosperous continent.”
“We still face serious barriers to having more young people enter positions of power and/or influence. Even when they exist, the entry points and processes for advancement that will attract talented and committed young people are sometimes not well structured.”
And lastly, from a sustainability perspective, this lack of inclusivity is actually dangerous. Young Africans do not understand the systems and institutions that define their futures. How then will they inherit structures and processes that they do not understand?
How will they inherit Agenda 2063 and other defined priorities if they are so far removed from them?
Current leaders should actually have a vested interest in bringing in young leaders not least to ensure the sustainability of the good work they have started.
Cesar Augusto Mba Abogo, the 39-year-old Minister of Finance, Economy and Planning of Equatorial Guinea, says “working in government has given me the opportunity to learn more about the 51-year history of my country and witness, first-hand, the challenges our countries face daily.” No doubt he can only get that valuable experience, vital for continuity, from being within and at the centre of his country’s decision-making apparatus.
Young trailblazers
During our research, we identified a number of incredible young trailblazers who are already occupying senior government positions or positions of considerable influence. This opportunity, they acknowledge, comes from those in leadership positions, their “sponsors”, affording them the opportunity to serve.
Their achievements in office speak for themselves and suggest the promise and potential of more young people in governance. Dr Jumoke Oduwole is the special adviser to the President of Nigeria on ease of doing business.
Her work is clearly already bearing fruit, as in 2019, Nigeria moved up 15 places on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index. Similarly, Clare Akamanzi in Rwanda is the chief executive officer of the Rwanda Development Board, which has been credited with making it easy to do business in Rwanda as well as ushering in record levels of foreign direct investment and is fast becoming a benchmark organisation across the continent.

It is during this process of working in government that a new crop of leaders begins to understand how policy is formulated and implemented. These young leaders play an important role in debunking ageist misconceptions and developing more innovative and dynamic institutions and policies. When called to serve, they heeded the charge to help build, plan and steer the Africa of their future.

From outliers to critical mass

But these young leaders remain lone voices in their various settings and what is actually required is a critical mass — a groundswell of new thinking and new ideas to propel the African continent forward.
To that end, a number of things need to happen. Firstly, getting young competent people into governance should not be dependent on mentors and sponsors — as important as they are. Getting to a critical mass will require deliberate actions which means structures and processes will need to be put into place.

On this, Nigeria offers some best practice for the rest of the continent regarding how to institutionalise such processes and reducing the barriers to entry. The positions of special adviser and special assistant to the minister were developed as pathways for getting technocrats into the government and can be readily replicated across the continent. Young competent Nigerians at national and state levels, such as Dr Jumoke Oduwole and Akintunde Oyebode, respectively, have been the beneficiaries of these roles. Like others, they are appointable, but not necessarily electable and have contributions to make in the policy realm without necessarily being politicians.
Secondly, as these young leaders enter the sphere of government and public office — often leaving a thriving opportunity in the private sector — they need to be adequately supported and trained. Formal inductions are needed so that they are not being set up to fail.

Thirdly, for those young people who do not necessarily want to be in public service, there are ways for African governments to leverage on their talents and know-how. Governments should set up sectoral advisory councils comprising the best young minds to make inputs into policy, leveraging on their experiences at the coalface. If policy is not evidence-based, relevant or appropriate, we are not moving forward as a continent.

Fourthly, African governments need to seriously consider youth quota systems in light of Africa’s peculiar demographic profile. While quotas are controversial, as they raise questions about meritocracy and whether the right people will be appointed, there are ways to alleviate those concerns. The African Leadership Institute is currently developing a platform of young, competent leaders which could be drawn on to help formalise the process of identifying young African experts.

Fifthly, the young leaders themselves need to self-mobilise and support each other by setting up a network of young leaders in governments across the continent to share experiences and learnings.

On this, David Sengeh says what has helped him has been the support from his peers, namely other young leaders in similar positions.

In closing, while the AU’s Youth Charter and the AU’s Agenda 2063 provide good policy frameworks, they, alone, are not sufficient. What is required above all is political will. It is up to each country’s leadership to demonstrate significant political will and open up spaces for young technocrats and leaders to move into positions of influence. It is, after all, a win-win. If young people can help governments deliver on their mandates to the people, everybody wins and the government looks good!

This article was co-produced by Dr Jacqueline Chimhanzi/Monique Atouguia and published in the current edition of the African Business as a special report to the ongoing 2020 World Economic Forum summit in Davos.

GOVERNMENT has dropped a bombshell on Harare City Council, directing it to dissolve all strategic business units it had formed, including City Parking and Harare Quarry, among others, claiming they were being used as conduits to syphon revenue from the local authority.

BY MOSES MATENGA

In a letter dated December 16, 2019 addressed to mayor Herbert Gomba, Local Government minister July Moyo said there was strong suspicion that some of the companies were being used to steal council resources.

“You are directed to make sure that companies formed as income-generating ventures, which previously had been sources for council revenue, are dissolved and the activities be carried out under the appropriate programmes,” he wrote.

“On that note, City Parking, without any investments, had not been bringing in any meaningful revenue to council and Sunshine Holdings seems to be a conduit to siphon out council resources. Furthermore, Harare Quarry (Pvt) Ltd demands payment upfront for material ordered by council, while it is being subsidised for making losses.”

Moyo said the measures would put council in good stead and achieve quick sustainable results.

He said city departments were operating in silos, with each department having its own support staff, a situation that has created semi-autonomous entities.

“This facilitates loss of organisational cohesion and creates a bloated support staff complement which weighs heavily on council resources. This administrative architecture results in the City of Harare failing to discharge its mandate efficiently,” Moyo said.

“You are, therefore, advised to revise the city’s organogram, as a matter of urgency assigning programme managers and sub-programme managers in line with the adopted programme-based approach. The programme managers and sub-programme managers should be held accountable for the operations of their areas of jurisdiction in all respect.”

Gomba said the local authority was working on a number of strategies to ensure the city achieved its set goals, for the good of the residents.

“We are in the process of moving Harare Water from the premises they were renting to accommodate them in our council properties, Cleveland and Rowan Martin. This will allow us to save a lot of money,” he said.

“We are also in the process of looking at the council organogram and see where responsibilities are overlapping.

For example, auditing, it can be done under purposes manager of council. The same with finance that can be done.

“We want to cut a lot of costs and that also includes introducing new soccer sponsors that are not City of Harare.
We are also engaging in strict measures to track council vehicles and also implement a measure that bars spouses of directors to use city vehicles and having fuel for their use. That is very unnecessary luxury.”

Higherlife Foundation has extended by an additional six months the free transport programme for nurses and doctors employed at public healthcare institutions in Zimbabwe.

The extended offer comes a day after the Foundation extended an offer to pay doctors in the public healthcare sector through a special medical fellowship established by Higherlife late last year, in order to enable doctors to go back to work following a long and debilitating strike that has paralysed the country’s public healthcare delivery system.

At the close of business yesterday (Thursday, January 23) the Foundation said close to a thousand doctors had signalled their intention to take up the offer by collecting the Fellowship forms. It said over 800 had completed and returned the forms to take up the offer, which is open until close of business tomorrow (Friday, January 24, 2020).

In December last year, a total of 362 mainly junior doctors took up the Fellowship offer from Higherlife Foundation and have already gone back to work.

In the statement yesterday, Higherlife Foundation said its focus remained on patient care. It said: “In line with our commitment to putting the patient first, we are pleased to announce that our free Vaya transport programme for nurses and doctors, which has been in place for the past 6 months, has been further extended and will run through to July 2020.

The Foundation said along with free transport, its affiliate businesses (in which the Masiyiwa family has interests) would “continuing to provide free water deliveries to all public hospitals and clinics in Harare”.

It said the Foundation would continue to support the country’s healthcare system and ensure “our public medical staff are well resourced to carry out their work”.

IF what I read online that Obert Gutu has resigned from the Thokozani Khupe-led MDC-T is true then this is a good step in the right direction.

By Kennedy Kaitano,Our Reader

This argument is based on contradictions that I have noticed between him and his colleagues, or former colleagues from the original MDC-T.

One of the contradictions has been around the desire to feed from the taxpayers’ sweat by some of the leaders in the MDC-T. While Gutu was at pains to express his thinking that he was not in the Political Actors Dialogue (Polad) for tea and biscuits, the secretary-general of the MDC-T Nixon Nyikadzino, was busy preparing a budget of how much money Polad needed for operational purposes, usurping the responsibilities of constitutional entities such as Parliament of Zimbabwe, most likely with the backing of Khupe. Otherwise how else can the secretary-general go on to talk to the media about a request for the funding of Polad without Khupe’s knowledge? It is commendable Gutu has realised that some of his colleagues in the MDC-T are hopeless and utterly broke political waifs who are scrounging for a living in Polad.

The other difference between Gutu and others, especially Khupe, is that she appears gullible and too quick to ululate at misfiring leaders.

I have not come across a statement by Khupe to rebuke Mnangagwa for his deceitful actions. How can she rebuke him when she has already publicly supported him, and when she is expecting Mnangagwa to divert government resources to fund Polad?

I wish you good luck Gutu, whether you have jumped ship or still with the compromised political outfit led by Khupe.

Follow your heart my brother.

The African Development Bank’s (AfDB) has approved a US$685 000 grant to strengthen Zimbabwe’s capacity to manage disaster risk.

BY BUSINESS REPORTER

The grant was approved under the AfDB’s, African Development Fund (ADF) which is the concessionary lending arm of the African Development Bank Group.

“The Board of the African Development Fund (ADF) on Wednesday approved a $685,000 grant to strengthen Zimbabwe’s capacity to manage disaster risks, including droughts, floods and tropical cyclones, through the Bank’s Africa Disaster Risk Financing (ADRiFi) programme,” AfDB, in a statement yesterday said.

“The grant will cover training for various national agencies involved in disaster risk management and financing and contingency planning as part of the ADRiFi project, designed to enhance the response of Regional Member Countries to climate disasters and promote innovative disaster risk finance instruments, such as disaster risk insurance.”

ADF provides low income Regional Member Countries with concessional loans and grants, guarantees as well as technical assistance for studies and capacity building to support of projects and programs that spur poverty reduction and economic development.

As such, AfDB said the grant will also benefit populations at risk of exposure to extreme drought events, particularly smallholder farmers and vulnerable rural communities.

“The ADRiFi project complements other initiatives currently being implemented in the agriculture sector and the Bank’s post Idai rehabilitation and reconstruction project in Zimbabwe,” AfDB said.

“The country is also a beneficiary of a Euro 1.2 million grant from the Bank, allocated for training of some eight resource-rich African countries, to improve their mining revenues.”

AfDB also announced that in collaboration with the Bank, the African Risk Capacity, a specialized agency of the African Union, will provide in-kind contribution for trainings estimated at around US$320 000.

“The project will run for two years, starting from March 2020,” AfDB said.

The support from the AfDB comes as country experienced extreme weather events that gave Zimbabwe ones of its worst droughts on record in the 2018/19 agricultural season and a deadly category three storm.

AfDB Zimbabwe country manager, Damoni Kitabire said extreme weather events such as prolonged dry spells, droughts, floods, and tropical cyclones had affected agricultural production and disrupted livelihoods of rural Zimbabwe.

“Coupled with harsh economic challenges, these extreme weather events increase household vulnerability, food insecurity, chronic poverty and malnutrition across the country,” Kitabire told the ADF Board.

He said the project demonstrates the Bank’s continued support to the country, while the government is working to reform the economy and that the AfDB would leverage support from other partners to successfully implement the project.

“The drought, worsened by the unfavourable economic conditions in the country, is estimated to have exposed 5.5 million people in rural areas and about three million urban dwellers to extreme vulnerability and food insecurity in the first half of 2020,” AfDB said.

Tee Mak and Enzo Ishall [Pic by Ronald Magweta]

BY CHENGETO CHIDI

ZIMDANCEHALL chanter Kudzanai Mamhare, popularly known as Enzo Ishall in entertainment circles, has said there is no bad blood between him and his former promoter, Passion Java.

Addressing the press at a Harare Hotel this morning, where the Kanjiva hitmaker signed a three-year contract with 23-year-old Malaysia-based millionaire Teemak, Enzo Isall cleared the air over his alleged fallout with the UK-based promoter Java.

“Nothing happened between me and Java. He came and helped me,” he said.

This comes after social media had been awash with news of the fallout, which also sucked in Mbare-based studio Chillspot Records.

Enzo Ishall however said he has cut ties with Chillspot, where Java is believed to hold a stake.

“Chillspot Records is my home. We were taught things like loyalty and respect. Wherever I am going to go, I will carry that with me,” he said.

The musician, who recently deleted his previous Instagram post and started afresh, expressed gratitude over the assistance he received from Java, whom he however said had officially signed him on.

“I was not signed by Prophet Passion but he helped me…we really appreciate his role in Zimdancehall,” he said.

The three-year contract they signed today comes with monthly allowances with room for increase, a five-figure United States dollar amount, international tours as well as local and international collaborations.

Enzo Ishall hinted on an upcoming album which will include production with Chillspot Records, Oskid and DJ Tamuka.

As the journey with Teemak Promotions has begun, the musician said he was eager to learn from his mistakes and did not blame Java for his Highest Score video which was considered a flop by his fans. 

“When I get disappointed, I take it as a lesson,” he said.

Teemak, who started off as an artiste himself and worked with international musicians including Boity, Nasty C and Tekno said he had a vision of nurturing local talent.

“I am not here for money, I want to inspire the youth,” he said.

BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE

Zimbabwe 358 & 30/0 * (17 ov), Sri Lanka
515/9d. Zimbabwe trail by 127 runs with 10 wickets remaining
Veteran batsman Angelo Matthews starred with the bat for visiting Sri Lanka after he struck an unbeaten double ton to give his side an edge over hosts Zimbabwe on the fourth day of their first Test at Harare Sports Club yesterday.

Sri Lanka managed to post a huge first innings total which saw them declare on 515 for the loss of nine wickets, with a 157 run lead.

The hosts, dismissed for 358 in their first innings, were 30 without loss at stumps and reduced Sri Lanka’s lead to 127.

But the star of the day was Matthews who began the day on 92 and went on to reach 200 in the last session of the day which prompted the team to declare after posting a plus 500 total.

Matthews has been struggling for runs in recent months and could only manage a high score of 30 runs in the two-match Test series against Pakistan last month.

The all-rounder, who has 84 Tests under his belt, spent 10 hours on the crease and reached the milestone in 468 balls.

For Zimbabwe, it was Sikandar Raza who was the most successful bowler on a wicket that gave little and nothing at all.

Raza had a chance for a hattrick when he accounted for Suranga Lakmal (27) and Lasith Embuldeniya (0) in successive balls late in the Sri Lanka innings.

Having earlier claimed the big wicket of Niroshan Dickwella (63), leg before wicket, Raza finished with figures of 3 for 62.

Sri Lanka began the day trailing the hosts by 63 runs and were pegged back in the first session when debutant Victor Nyauchi got the wicket of Dhananjaya de Silva early on.

His replacement Dickwella went on to share a sixth wicket partnership of 136 runs with Matthews.

Nyauchi finished impressive bowling figures of three for 69 in his first Test innings while captain Sean William managed two for 104.

After an unfortunate incident in which opener Kevin Kasuza was hit by as ball on the head while fielding he had to be replaced by another debutant Brian Mudzinganyama.

Mudzinganyama (15) opened the batting with Prince Masvaure (9) as Zimbabwe began their second innings and both batsmen managed to preserve their wickets at stumps.

Zimbabwe will be looking to bat the whole day today as they seek to save the tie while Sri Lanka are hoping that the hosts capitulate in the chase to give them an unlikely victory.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Under-19 side crushed out of the ICC World Cup after losing to Pakistan by 38 runs at the Witrand Oval, Potchefstroom yesterday in their second game at the tournament.

Pakistan ensured their qualification to Super League quarter-finals while Zimbabwe will now compete in the Plate League as they can no longer finish among the top two teams in Group C.

Zimbabwe lost to Bangladesh by nine wickets in their first match and are scheduled to play Scotland in their final group match on Saturday.

BY HENRY MHARA

Zifa have said they will attend the Cosafa annual general meeting set for South Africa at the weekend, despite the regional football governing body earlier this week barring the association from attending the congress.

Cosafa on Tuesday wrote to Zifa advising them that they will not be allowed to attend the meeting set for Saturday at the Southern Sun OR Tambo Hotel in Johannesburg, because they are not in good standing due to non-payment of annual subscriptions.

Cosafa secretary-general Sue Destombes said in the letter that she had been advised by the body’s emergency committee that Zifa owed some monies, and as such they were not eligible for the indaba.

However, the Felton Kamambo-led Zifa are adamant that they will attend the meeting. In their response to Cosafa, the local football mother body claimed that the statutes that Cosafa are using to bar them are non-existent.

“The decision is alleged to have been made by the Emergency Committee of Cosafa. A reading of the Cosafa statutes will reveal that such a committee is non-existent. Article 10 and Article 11 provide for the establishment of the executive committee and the duties and powers of the executive committee. There is no provision creating the emergency committee of Cosafa. As such the alleged decision was made by a non-existent committee of Cosafa. It is a nullity and will accordingly be ignored with the contempt it deserves,” read part of the letter by Zifa general secretary Joseph Mamutse.

The association claims that they made a payment plan to service the debt, after they asked Fifa to pay the money direct to Cosafa from the annual grant due to Zimbabwe.

“The said arrangement was approved by Fifa and communication to yourselves was made in that regard. It must be noted that Cosafa concurred with the arrangement. It is therefore misleading to state that Zifa failed to pay its subscription fees to Cosafa. It is further a travesty of justice to seek to suspend Zifa for failure to pay subscriptions while Cosafa is aware that the payment is to be done and that Fifa has made a commitment to pay the required amount.”

Zifa claims that their suspension had nothing to do with the debt, but it is part of a spirited campaign by Cosafa boss Philip Chiyangwa to exclude Zimbabwe from the meeting after they threatened to move a motion to recall him from his position on corruption allegations.

Zifa said the decision to bar or suspend a member association could only be made by the executive committee, which is set to sit on Friday, and needs ratification by the general assembly.

They said even if they had refused to pay the subscription, the Cosafa constitution (article 25.7), allows them to attend the general assembly, but will have their right to vote forfeited in the event that the suspension has been ratified.

“We are of the firm view that the letter of the 20th was motivated by a desire to bar us from attending the general assembly simply on the basis that we have our own issues with the incumbent president (Chiyangwa). The timing of your letter exposes this desire. All along, no demand was ever made to us for the payment alleged. We, therefore, believe that the nature of the letter is just to harass us as an association. We, therefore, advise that we are prepared to make good any payment which is legally due to you. Advise us by return post of such a fee so as to enable us to make arrangements with Fifa that same be remitted to yourself. We, therefore, advise that we shall be attending the general assembly as per our constitutional right.”

BY BRENNA MATENDERE

GWERU council management and councillors have clashed over the $1,8 billion 2020 budget — a 3 900% hike from 2019’s $46 million — sent for approval to Local Government minister July Moyo without consensus, council minutes reveal.

Already some services have been hiked with burial fees going from $80 to $1 097.

Rentals for council-owned two-roomed houses in Mkoba where tenants were paying $40 have been raised to $600 a month.

Home-seekers wishing to settle in Gweru by way of building houses will also have to dig deeper into their pockets. Occupation certificate fees have been raised from $30 to $5 000 while beacon relocation which was previously $150 now costs $9 000.

A fuel service station licence that is renewed annually has risen from $3 000 to $84 000, while, yearly licence fees for surgeries are now $40 000.

Minutes of a closed-door full council meeting held on December 6 last year show that councillors threw brickbats at acting finance director Owen Masimba for sending the $1,8 billion budget to Moyo without consensus between management and the city fathers.

The minutes show that councillors Albert Chirawu and Trust Chineni berated management and insinuated that it conducted a “coup d’etat” on the councillors.

“The budget for 2020 for Gweru was supposed to be multiplied with that of 2019 using the interbank rate which was at $16 per US$1. This means that since our budget of 2019 was $46 million so if we multiplied that by 16 we were supposed to get about $734 million. This figure of $1,8 billion is unjustified,” Chirawu said then.

According to the minutes, other councillors concurred with Chirawu.

Gweru Residents Forum director, Charles Mazorodze, yesterday said it was absurd for council to increase its budget to such high levels considering that people struggled to pay for services even when they were still cheaper.

“Last year residents of Gweru were failing to pay for services pegged at the $46 million budget. Now that the budget will have fees that are pegged using the $1,8 billion budget, it is difficult to believe that they will afford,” he said.

“At the moment council is owed millions by the residents who failed to pay last year, so it just indicates that the situation will be worse this year given the new higher fees,” Mazorodze said.

Council spokesperson Vimbai Chingwaramusee said the $1,8 billion figure was arrived at after factoring in the prevailing economic climate. She said minister Moyo was yet to approve the budget.

“It has not yet been approved. We adjusted the budget in line with the prevailing economic situation. The local authority will consider the complaints from residents as it remains sensitive to their plight,” she said.

Deputy mayor Cleopas Shiri told Southern Eye that the councillors agreed to have an implementation matrix of the budget in which charges will be increased every three months instead of once off.

“There is a standing resolution that council will come up with an implementation matrix of the proposed budget,” he said.