It has been quite an interesting year for Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe; he became the African Union Chairman, had a fall that went viral on social media, and for the first time since South Africa’s democracy, made his official state visit last week.
Although most large media outlets covered his comments about not wanting to see a ‘whiteface’ after exiting the Hector Pieterson Memorial Museum in Orlando West, Soweto. It was his speech during the South Africa-Zimbabwe Business Forum in Pretoria, that allowed African Youth to see the President in a different light.
““Independence is only a half measure in many African countries. They don’t control their resources,” he said. “We did not just fight for the vote. We fought for you to have freedom to use natural resources as assets in business. As such, we can no longer be exporters of primary commodities. Most in Africa… are exporting raw materials.”
“I said African resources belong to Africans. I don’t believe capital is more important than resources” he stated a day prior, about the brow raising indigenous economic empowerment act of 2007, that has been implemented and amended overtime in his country.
Young people across the diaspora used these words to engage into dialogue of Africa’s interdependent state, and broke down to Mugabe’s leadership
With quotations to Mugabe’s speech and talks about his leadership – youth on social media, specifically Twitter went viral on Mugabe’s utterances during his time in South Africa.
This is more encouraging for the youth, as this is a step in becoming a more unified Africa – by seeing the purpose and importance in becoming inter-related.
