Youth in Politics and decision making

Young people need to be given a chance to express themselves in ways that they are passionate about. Policies effecting youth can be framed by young people themselves rather than old politicians, who most probably cannot feel the contemporary problems young people are facing. Youth should be given the opportunity to prove themselves by making politics accessible to the them. The right balance of young talent and experienced politicians can lead to the cleaning of politics and can restore the public faith in the political system.  The role of the youth of Zimbabwe  is to educate itself and engage in activities and debates that will shape their future. This role though, is one that can only be taken up with sufficient motivation and support from individuals who see the youth beyond the labels that have been placed on them such as “lazy”, “ignorant”, “irresponsible” and plenty other terms. We want our youths to be economically and psychologically emancipated so that they can live to their full potential in this life time .
In 2013 Zimbabwe  took to the polls to cast their votes, hence having a voice and making it count but sadly not all the youth who qualified to vote exercised their democratic right, often hiding behind saying “it doesn’t matter, we know who is going to win anyway,” and not being short of other excuses too.
It may be an obvious point to make but it is worth making anyway- shortly before the elections, the ruling party as well as the leading opposition party hosted entertainment events for the youth in hopes of obtaining more votes from the young people. What good do events of that nature do in supporting the long standing argument by the elderly that young people are not very interested in the history of their country and making sure that history does not repeat itself?
The young people need examples to aspire to, motivation, inspiration and support from those who are saying “here is the torch; it is your turn to carry it forth”.
Would It have been out of context to rather host a sports tournament amongst the various political parties with young people participating in various sports codes as opposed to having beach parties and concerts where chances of these young people getting drunk and hurting each other are higher than if they were to use sports as a platform to come together and engage each other? It is important to note that not all “born-frees” nor all youth in general who attended the entertainment events also voted, and it is here where we need to look at the impact and effects of how the youth is viewed.
“Each generation starts off not from the beginning of the struggle, but from the footholds built for it by others, and with the experience and the inspiration bequeathed to it by others who have gone before. Steadily and painfully, each generation fights its way upwards, higher than the last, nearer to the goal.”
  The role of the youth is amongst other things to firstly understand and then tackle certain phenomena that are relevant in this current day and edge such as patriarchy, sexism, racism and all other ideas that do not  have a place in the future that will be led by the youth of today.
The expectations placed on the youth need not be backward- society and especially the elder people need to understand that the struggles that we are faced with now will not be dealt with the same way that the youth of 1963 dealt with their struggles because the circumstances are now different and tactics have over time changed.