Jobless graduates in gowns protest broken job promises

Unemployed graduates in Zimbabwe have held protests while wearing graduation gowns, calling on President Robert Mugabe to create the jobs he promised in his election manifesto, as a wave of demonstrations rocked the country.

The protests dubbed #thisgown come at a time of general public protests held since 6 July against the government’s policy failures, rising unemployment, corruption and human rights violations.

There are increasing calls for Mugabe to step down after 36 years in power, punctuated by polls marred by rigging allegations.

State security agents have responded with heavy handedness to crush recent protests, including arresting protestors on trumped up charges.

Multiple arrests

The leader of the #thisflag protest movement, Pastor Evan Mawarire, was arrested last month. A bid to charge him with treason collapsed in court and he is now living in South Africa.

Three unemployed Harare graduates who staged a #thisgown protest on 3 August were arrested and appeared in court last week on charges of assault or resisting arrest.

Tinashe Wellington Macharika (33), Aleck Nakomo (21) and Chaponda Ndlovu (36) will stand trial on 16 August, Harare magistrate Jessie Kufa told them, granting bail of US$50. They are represented by Jeremiah Bhamu of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

Another protest leader, Promise Mkwananzi of a movement called Tajamuka – ‘we refuse and we have had enough’ – has approached the Constitutional Court to decide whether the president has failed to fulfil his constitutional obligations. Mkwananzi is a former president of the Zimbabwe National Student Union.

The application refers to Mugabe’s failure to create promised jobs. In it Mkwananzi says that prior to being re-elected in 2013, the president made undertakings and promises in his election manifesto and an economic blueprint that Mugabe and his ZANU PF party called 'Zim Asset'.

Mugabe, “fully aware of the sanctions and economic challenges surrounding him and the nation, promised the nation sustainable socio-economic transformation including two million jobs. Very few, if not none, of these promises materialised.”

High unemployment

Unemployment in Zimbabwe is estimated at a whopping 90%. Since 2013, when Mugabe was controversially re-elected, tens of thousands of people have lost jobs in a faltering economy.

There are fears of more company closures and job losses should the government go ahead and introduce a new currency, bond notes, in October to operate alongside United States dollars. The dollar was adopted in 2009 after inflation reached a world record of 2.3 million percent.

Last week Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Jonathan Moyo said some unemployed graduates crying out for jobs lacked the skills needed by (what is left of) industry and commerce.

In a speech at the United College of Education’s 48th graduation ceremony, Moyo said most of the people on the streets lacked skills. Indeed: “A lot of people with key responsibilities across our economy have the wrong skills. And some of them don’t realise this.”

Of the jobless graduate protestors, the former university professor added: “All they think they should do is to put on their gowns and say ‘give us jobs’. And you ask, what can you do? Do you have the skills?”