An estimated three million people, a quarter of the population, is reported to have left the country. It is, however, difficult to substantiate that figure but at one time, remittances from abroad clocked $935 million making this the second highest source of foreign income for the country.
Tsvangirai said he was heartened by the fact that the theme for this year’s Africa Day celebrations is Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through Investments in Youth.
“Given the youth bulge on the continent, including in Zimbabwe where even university graduates are on the street pavements eking out a living as vendors, we urgently need to invest in the future of our young people. We certainly need to create opportunities for them so that they make a positive contribution to the country and the continent.
“The youth are the future but that future can only be ensured by our conscious decisions today to put in place policies and mechanisms that guarantee their active participation both in the politics and the economies of their countries.”
Full Statement:
Thursday, 25 May 2017
President Tsvangirai's Africa day message
Today is Africa Day, that significant day when the sons and daughters of Africa celebrate the unparalleled gallantry that as citizens of Africa we continue to exhibit in surmounting the huge challenges that fate continues to throw on our path.
Africa Day is a day to celebrate this continent of heroes and heroines who successfully fought colonialism and foreign domination; a continent that continues to fight repression wherever it manifests, even among ourselves.
Today, we must reflect on the vision of the founding fathers who gathered to form the Organization of African Unity in 1963, which we transformed into the African Union and has scored some successes and met with challenges in other areas. Indeed, we have had an odd mixture of both proud and sorry moments but today is a day to celebrate our achievements and the numerous challenges we have surmounted to become the continent of hope that we are today.
As we celebrate this day, it is also a moment for sober reflection.
Firstly, given the continent’s vast mineral wealth and its wide base of natural resources, it is without any rationality and justification that we must continue to have such poverty among ourselves. Notwithstanding the great strides we are making as a continent, it is true that our ruling elites have pillaged national resources while many in our communities, especially women and children, continue to live in abject poverty, surviving on less than US$1 a day. This is unforgivable especially given the vast wealth our great continent enjoys.
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