Mozambique: Frelimo sees youth as top priority for development agenda

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Mozambique: Frelimo sees youth as top priority for development agenda

5:20 CAT | 24 Oct 2022

Photo: Frelimo Moçambique

The President of Frelimo, Mozambique’s ruling party, calls on members of the new Central Committee elected at the just ended 12th Party Congress to view youth’s engagement as one of its top priorities for today’s development agenda.

Filipe Nyusi, who is also the Mozambican President, says to that effect it is crucial for members of the Central Committee to provide the necessary support to Party bodies, particularly the Mozambican Youth Organisation (OJM).

He made the call this Friday in Inhambane during the opening ceremony of the induction seminar for the new members of the Central Committee.

″As the late President Samora Machel often stressed youth is the centre stage of confrontation between the forces of revolution and reaction. That means that both our opponents and us, be they opposition political parties or other internal and external actors seeking to remove us from power, will always seek at all costs to attract the youth for the realization of their own agenda″, he explained.

That’s the reason in other countries, said Nyusi, the main actors of social and political upheaval are mostly young people, which is why the Frelimo’s government insists on the need to rejuvenate the OJM and the Party itself, in order to raise the level of awareness of young people about the pressing need to build the nation.

“That’s why in our governance programme we have included actions aiming at granting opportunities of access to employment and self-employment, technical-vocational training, to prevent the youth from being carried away by utopian and unsustainable projects”, he said.

According to Nyusi, one should look at the political dynamics with realism and acknowledge that other political parties are also striving to improve their strategies to attract to their ranks some fringe of the electorate that allows them to ensure their representation in the Assembly of the Republic, provincial and municipal assemblies.

The parties are also seeking to exploit the challenges the youth are battling with such as unemployment, lack of housing which makes them vulnerable to harmful practices such as crime, drug use, among others.

″A more intense competition has been directed to secure the youth vote, which is the largest age group in the country″, he said.

On the political front, he said it was urgent to strengthen Frelimo’s role in society by boosting the work of grassroots bodies, starting with the Party Cell. According to the party statutes, the cell should have at least five or a maximum of 15 members.

″Each of us should belong to one cell and participate in debates on the life of the Party and the country from within.

He insists that the Central Committee should also make sure that the cells are working accordingly by exercising their role of listening to members and sympathisers and seeking local solutions to local problems.

Source: AIM