"[3] The National Youth Service had been condemned in the West and in Africa for gross human rights violations on behalf of the ZANU-PF party.
[8][9] In 2021, the government under former military general President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced a plan to reintroduce a rebranded national youth service.
While it proposed to unite people above party lines, it also promoted wariness of "foreign influence and intervention" in national politics.
[3] The opposing view, both inside Zimbabwe and abroad, held that the service indoctrinated its members with absolute loyalty to ZANU-PF and trained them for military operations to enforce its dominance.
The speeches glorified Mugabe's land reform programme and ZANU-PF leaders Border Gezi and Chenjerai Hunzvi.
[17][18] Conditions in the service training facilities were reported to include poor construction, frequent hunger and sexual abuse of girls and women.