Makunje elected National Youth Committee chair: Wazamazama in executive
Youths from all corners of Malawi convened at Hippo View Lodge in Liwonde recently where they elected their first ever National
Executive Committee.
The elections were held on the sideline of a two day National Youth Peace Forum which attracted participants from all the Regional Youth Executive Committee.
During the elections, Taleka Nyenyezi Makunje was elected President with Peter Mumba elected as Vice President.
Esther Msiska is the interim General Secretary while Kible Kamandani, Andrew Bwanali, Tiba Zimba and Wazamazama Katatu were elected a Executive Committee Members.
Apart from the votes, the congress also discussed at length the role of the youth in development.
Guest of honour at the conference Joseph Mwandidya who is also Acting Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Labour, Youth, Sports and Man Power Development advised Malawian youths to be hard working and always act responsibly inorder to transform the nation and make it great.
According to Mwandidya, Malawian youths need to reposition themselves in the society by avoiding being used by politicians and
from now onwards, desist from violent acts but to remain focused.
“Malawi is our country and lets love it unless somebody tells us we are in transit then lets go out there and destroy our country. Lets love our country for our own prosperity,” said Mwandidya.
“We should forget about the political parties we belong to because we are all Malawians. As youths, let us show todays old politicians that we can do it. We need to show each other the way of moving this country forward because there is life after politics” he said.
One of the participants at the meeting Wazamazama Katatu, who is also President for Mzzzu University students, admitted that roles for the youths in the country have been miserably misplaced.
“We need to see a reverse of some of the issues including how we handle things including prior to, during and after elections. I don’t
think we should come relevant when approaching elections” said Katatu.
He therefore called upon fellow youths to start a strong movement of defining themselves .
One of the Youth Rights Activist Leon Matanda who is also a member of the Civil Society Organisation (CSO) Taskforce on youths embrace their opponents.
The theme for the conference was ‘Youth as Centrality for Peace Building and Conflict Transformation.
Youths in Malawi constitutes atleast 70 percent of the country’s population which has a 23 percent unemployment rate compared to
national unemployment rate of 21 percent.
