Age ain't nothing but a number

Austria made history by electing the world's youngest president who is 31 years old. His name is Sebastian Kurz, and has a girlfriend Susanne.

Before the 2017 presidential election, he was the country's foreign minister. Emmanuel Macron (39) was elected as president of France in May 2017. Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern (37) is a New Zealand politician and the incoming Prime Minister of New Zealand. She is the Leader of the Labour Party. Just across the border in South Africa we have young firebrand leaders like Julius Malema (36) and Mmusi Maine (37)leading vibrant opposition parties.

Unfortunately young people in Zimbabwe are content with being boot lickers, praise singers and special assistants  on social media in Zimbabwe whilst youths in other countries are disrupting the status quo, pushing for innovation, changing the narrative and pushing for a new frontier.

Mark Zukerberg is just 32 years old and the youngest billionaire in the world.

The bar was raised in Austria when they elected a 31 year old man as its leader. What is an average 31 year old man in Zimbabwe doing? Probably sitting at a street corner smoking weed or abusing bronco or helplessly enduring the heat at street lights selling airtime.

Most young people in Zimbabwe stay with their  parents, are unemployed and broke. They are in a fake comfort zone because they eat free food and are not bothered an inch about their status quo. These are the ones who chant "zvobatsireyi kuvhota".

The 31 old Zimbabwean man is feeling big supporting politicians (who directly or indirectly put us in the mess we are in) on Facebook without seeing the nexus  between the failed leadership and present unemployment predicament.

My heart bleeds for our youths many of whom are wasting precious time forgetting that time waits for no man.

The economic crisis and socio-political quagmire in Zimbabwe has not helped many to realize that they have to step up and change things. It is rather unfortunate that my generation is not ready to push for change and freedom doesn't come on a silver platter.

Those who have bank jobs think they are on top of the world, forgetting that the owners of the banks were Billionaires at their age.

Those who work in IOCs see themselves as great achievers, not knowing that they are slaves.

What are you doing with your life? Are you happy with the way things are in Zimbabwe right now? What are you doing to push for change?

Take this moment to aspire to change your current situation. To be an advocate for change. Don't ask what Zimbabwe can do for you. Think about what you can do for Zimbabwe.

Your future is in your hands. Go and register to vote. #TogetherWeCan #I💓Zimbabwe

Who is Linda Tsungirirai Masarira?

Linda Tsungirirai Masarira is a human rights defender, pro-democracy, socioeconomic and political activist who is passionate about women and girl child rights. She is also campaigning for the Harare central parliamentary seat in the 2018 elections as an independent candidate.

She is thirty-five years (35) old and currently studying for a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Peace and governance. She is a human rights defender passionate about equality, gender balance, women and girl child rights, democracy, inclusion and economic and political freedom for marginalized groups of society.

Linda is a widow and a proud mother of 5 children.

Following a series of demonstrations, petitions and protests for violations of human rights by the Government of Zimbabwe which she organised, she was incarcerated for more than 80 days in prison for challenging the ruling system to respect human dignity. During the days of incarceration, she mobilized fellow women prisoners and led an inmate protest against poor and inhumane conditions that women were being subjected to including lack of sanitary pads and access to medical services, because of that move, she was brutalized and moved to a male prison and placed on solitary confinement until she was granted bail by a High court order in September 2016.

She is the Founder and national coordinator for Zimbabwe Women in Politics Alliance, National Coordinator for the Young African Leadership Forum (Zimbabwean Chapter), Chairperson of the Revolutionary Freedom Fighters, Chairperson of STAR fellowship cohort 3, FES Alumni, Founder and Chairperson of the Association of Railways Terminated Employees and former President of the Trainmen workers Union (2008-2013).

Linda has also  been involved in trade unionism during her time at the National Railways of Zimbabwe and Systems Technology (Pvt) (Ltd) where she mobilized fellow employees to fight for their labour rights, which culminated into her getting fired from the two companies.
She organised several successful campaigns including  the “Bring back our women from Kuwait” campaign where she took a leading role in petitioning the government of Zimbabwe and the Kuwaiti Embassy to expedite the repatriation process to the stranded Zimbabwean women who had fallen victim to human trafficking. Following this campaign , the government of Zimbabwe later came up with an expatriation plan for all trafficked persons outside Zimbabwe which saw more than 200 women victims coming back home.

Besides political activism, humanitarian and democracy work, she is a former member of the executive management committee of the People`s Democratic Party (PDP) responsible for recruitment and mobilization.

To compliment her vision for sustainable development not only in Zimbabwe, but the whole of Africa, she is also a business woman who utilizes her skills to educate young aspiring women to venture into income generation projects so that they can be independent economically .To that effect she strongly believes in Youth Leadership and grooming  young people to effectively advocate and fight for social economic and political justice in our country.