Mt Pleasant Member of Parliament Fadzayi Mahere (CCC), has said Higher Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Amon Murwira is “out of touch with the depth of the unemployment crisis” in Zimbabwe.

Murwira recently told parliamentarians that unemployed graduates should not seek jobs but rather create their own businesses. He said:

We nolonger talk of brain drain but brain circulation. We will not construct people who work for other people. The issue of graduating and seeking employement should be a thing of the past.

We want to change the mentality now. You need to go to school and put to use what you learnt not sleep at home and wait for employment. Those were colonial industries, let us start our own.

In response, Mahere, who is also the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology Development, said:

Regrettably, the Minister of Higher Education once again shows how out of touch he is with the depth of the unemployment crisis, the realities of Zimbabwe’s job market, the state of our economy and the needs of higher education graduates.

In most professions, the regulatory bodies don’t permit graduates to assume self-employment upon graduation.

He appears ignorant of the professional rules that govern the graduates he is churning out which is disturbing.

Doctors, lawyers, accountants & engineers, for example, can’t just start up on their own. They have to first be employed for a set number of years before they can practice for their own account.

How does he expect such graduates not to seek employment? It’s ludicrous.

Zimbabwe has the highest unemployment rate in the region. The latest figures show that we are faced with over 85% unemployment.

This is clear evidence of a comatose economy, a shrinking formal sector and the disintegration of industry.

Graduates have been reduced to vending tomatoes because the economy does not work. He fails to make the connection or see the relatedness between the broken economy and the unemployment crisis.

There is an urgent need to stop the rhetoric, analyze the data, listen to key stakeholders and review Education 5.0.

Except for in The Herald and in his own head, the higher education system in Zimbabwe is not working.

The Minister ignores analytics at his peril. Lip service is paid to the notions of technology and innovation yet the reality on the ground shows that most universities and tertiary colleges lack efficient internet access, stable electricity and adequate water – not to mention the adverse impact of student poverty.

Propaganda can never fix the crisis – that’s the mentality that has to change!

Mahere said Murwira has been employed “his whole life” and has no authority to tell graduates to start their own business ventures. She said:

How does someone who is employed by the taxpayer predominantly to create an ecosystem that ensures students are fit for employment stand up in the august house to say that seeking employment should be a thing of the past?

Has he not been employed his whole life? Why didn’t he start his own thing instead of seeking employment?

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