The culture of engaging scholarly thoughts and discussions in policy crafting, still remains one of the top ways of engaging public voice and that of policy makers to one understanding.
I met a couple of youths (names withheld) at a shopping area at Pumula South who kept going on and on about not knowing their MP and their councilor, ‘ongakhaliyo ufela embelekweni’ (A child that does not cry dies of hunger) they also said.
These youngsters went on to complain about how the government keeps crafting policies they do not understand and claimed the government should engage the public in crafting such policies.
This did not sit well with me, I wondered whether the government is to blame or rather a case of ignorant people, too ignorant to follow up on public lectures and platforms of public engagement among other issues.
Instead of sympathizing with them, I realized there is lack of direct communication between the community leadership and its people and this is one issue that demands to be addressed.
Taken aback to my high school moments, I remembered how vibrant debaters where and how Junior Council members walked like the next best thing after fried chicken. Most of us, were almot certain these individuals were going to make it in life and that the direction and future of Zimbabwe lay in good hands. Sadly though; most of these potentials either succumbed to the hyper inflationary environment of Zimbabwe or ended up being nurses after failing to become doctors, temporary teachers after failing to learn law or Kombi drivers if they could not become pilots.
In Zimbabwe, from primary education to tertiary education there has been different scholastic debates that have been the central pivot in influencing policy making and political decision making.
One good example of such is the 2012 Environmental Debate Agency’s (EMA) national debate which ran under the controversial theme: THERE IS NO GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS. THE ENVIRONMENT WILL FIND A WAY TO BALANCE ITSELF.
High school students got a chance to air their intriguing thoughts with some claiming the crisis was a political one while others mantained it to be economical and so forth.
One student, Eldar ‘Tiny’ Mabaleka (late) had a very convincing argument that saw Mtshabezi high school not only winning the Provincial tournament but also going forward to the regionals in Masvingo’s Victoria High School.
Such a culture has been the epitome of not only educating the public through student engagements who later share such understanding as future leaders, but has also seen public figures attending and even adopting the policy resolutions.
Midlands State University’s (MSU) Young Ambassadors Forum (YAF) under the student affairs department has held interesting debate sessions held as a simulation to the United Nations’ session which is known as the ‘YAFMUN’.
One key interesting theme topic held in 2015 was ‘Its High time the United Nations security adopts and implements reforms.’
The event which was also graced by a delegate from the Nigerian Embassy and the Zimbabwean foreign Affairs ministry, yielded fruitful resolutions as delegates from different member states came to a resounding resolution with member states representatives pushing for the reformation of the United Nations Security Council.
Also, at a very successful Pan-African Universities Debate Session known as MaDzimbabwe held in the December of 2016 at MSU; fruitful motions where shared and these saw students engaging in a scholastic level adopting resolutions and pushing for policies.
In 2017, His Excellency, Emmerson Mnangagwa (then Vice President) once held a public lecture at MSU on command agriculture that shed more light, debate and gave the public’s opinion about the policy framework as his speech added flesh to the skeletal structure.
One can undoubtedly see that for sure involvement of debates and public discourse can help air public views especially if leaders are invited to grace such occasions.
It is therefore wise that the public invites their leaders, councilors and Members of Parliament to social functions and or create a public platform to engage their leaders in a political discourse so that no one cries foul about not knowing ZIMASSET, COMMAND AGRICULTURE among other policies the leaders may decide to engage in.
