'The youth electorate can contest in elections' – Draft Constitution.

The National Youth Development Trust held a youth meeting in Pumula North Bulawayo, where the draft constitution which has found its way into the hands of the media, Political parties and Civic Society was unpacked. The young people that attended the meeting were quite pleased with the fact that the new constitution has no age limits for those who wish to contest in elections, as everyone who is at the legal age of participating in elections can also be a candidate.

Young people have been given a chance to take part in national processes, the fact that they can contest to be councilors, Members of parliament, senators and the president is a plus as it shows that they are viewed equally as people senior to them.

Zimbabwe has had a history of having leaders who are old and therefore ignore youth issues as they cannot fully relate to them. These leaders have only paid attention to the youth electorate when it is time for elections and are seeking to use them as perpetrators of violence to spearhead their campaigns. This part of the draft constitution has truly regarded all citizens as equals.

Khumbulani Ncube of Habbakuk Trust said that the draft constitution promises to be a better document than the constitution we have.

However, there are major points we need to discuss and debate on before the constitution can be passed as final.

"The draft constitution promises to be a better document than what we have seen or the current constitution that we have. However there are major points we need to debate on and discuss to ensure that this constitution is what the people have said they want," said Ncube.

He further said that young people need to dwell more on the issues that concern their day to day living like that of citizenship, rather than issues of leadership as those issues are the ones that would ensure better living conditions for them and their children in the future.

Issues that were addressed but still need probing that affect the youth constituency include:

• Devolution of power, which is recognized but has loopholes as powers of the provincial assemblies are limited as their decisions can be nullified by the national assembly, leaving the actual gist of devolution to an act of Parliament.
• The bill of rights, which is good but realizes three languages as official and does not recognize the supremacy of God.
• Parliament and executive, the three tier system of electing senators which are the secret ballot, proportional representation and an election in a manner that is prescribed by the electoral laws for the sake of marginalized groups which is not clear.

A debate was sparked by the fact that the draft did not include anything on homosexuality, with the youth being divided by what they thought the constitution must say about this highly controversial issue. Others also felt that the recognition of God in the new constitution would mean the discrimination against atheists or those people who belonged to other religions other than Christianity.

"I believe that recognizing the supremacy of God would mean discriminating against atheists, it would be similar to choosing English, Ndebele and Shona as official languages over other languages spoken in Zimbabwe but are considered as minority," said one participant.

"I believe that gays and lesbians are human beings and must be allowed to live their lives as anybody else without being discriminated against because of their sexual orientation," said one participant.

It is evident that Zimbabwe has a long way to go before this constitution is fully approved or is satisfactory. Young people have been urged to read the draft, discuss it among themselves and then identify strategic people to give their views to ensure that what they want in the constitution would be captured at the time of the second stakeholders' conference. People should note that this draft is not official.

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