They said the trainers were mostly ward youth officers, retired army officers and war veterans, who terrorised villagers during the 2008 violent elections.MDC-T claims that 200 of its activists were murdered by state security agents and Zanu PF militia during that time.
Co-chairperson of the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic) Elton Mangoma last week said Zanu PF was secretly training the notorious militia in preparation for the polls.
“Zanu PF is secretly training militia,” declared Mangoma, who is the MDC-T negotiator in the unity talks.
“The programme is being done through ward youth officers and the ghost workers we are fighting to remove from the pay-roll.”
He said the officers were part of the 75 000 ghost workers that Zanu PF is refusing to remove from government’s pay-roll.
In Makoni North, said Mangoma, the training is being held at Sherenje School, disturbing pupils.
“To try and sanitise the programme, they are claiming that it is part of community projects like road maintenance when in actual fact they want to deploy the militia once election dates are announced,” he said.
But the Ministry of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment said the programme at Sherenje was part of 63 Youth Build Zimbabwe projects underway across the country.
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Mangoma said last week’s Jomic visit to Sherenje failed to prove the training of militia because “the event was stage-managed” to hide the goings-on at the school.
In a report by Jomic dated May 17 2011, Kasukuwere’s permanent secretary Prince Mpazviriho said there was confusion between National Youth Service (NYS) and the Youth Development Programme, which incorporates Youth Build Zimbabwe, run under his ministry.
“They explained that the Youth Build Zimbabwe was misunderstood, not only because of political polarisation in the country, but also because of the stigma attached to the previous NYS,” said the report that was compiled after complaints from Mangoma.
