| Robert Gabriel Mugabe National Youth Day | |
|---|---|
| Observed by | Zimbabwe |
| Type | National |
| Significance | Commemoration of former President Robert Mugabe as one of Zimbabwe's founders and leaders. |
| Date | 21 February |
| Next time | 21 February 2020 |
| Frequency | annual |
Robert Gabriel Mugabe National Youth Day is a public holiday in Zimbabwe commemorating former President Robert Mugabe.
Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in southern Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique. The capital and largest city is Harare and the second largest being Bulawayo. A country of roughly 16 million people, Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, with English, Shona, and Ndebele the most commonly used.
Robert Gabriel Mugabe was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He chaired the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) group from 1975 to 1980 and led its successor political party, the ZANU – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), from 1980 to 2017. Ideologically an African nationalist, during the 1970s and 1980s he identified as a Marxist–Leninist, and as a socialist after the 1990s. His policies have been described as Mugabeism.
The ZANU–PF Youth League has commemorated Robert Mugabe on his birthday in February for years as part of its February 21st Movement which was established in 1986. The youth arm of the ruling party lobbied for the former president's birthday to be declared a national holiday for what the organization says the leader's role in empowering the country's youth. [1]
The Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) is a political organization which has been the ruling party of Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. The party was led for many years under Robert Mugabe, first as Prime Minister with the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and then as President from 1987 after the merger with the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and retaining the name ZANU–PF, until 2017, when he was removed as leader.
The day was formally recognized as a national holiday on February 24 2017 on the same day President Emmerson Mnangagwa was sworn in as leader of Zimbabwe following a coup which led to the resignation of Mugabe as President. [2] The holiday was formalized through the publication of a statutory instrument on The Herald under the virtue of section 2 of the Public Holidays and Prohibition of Business Act. [1]
Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who currently serves as the third President of Zimbabwe since 24 November 2017. A member of ZANU–PF and a longtime ally of former President Robert Mugabe, he held a series of Cabinet portfolios and was Vice-President of Zimbabwe under Mugabe until November 2017, when he was dismissed before coming to power in a coup d'état. He was officially inaugurated as the third President of Zimbabwe on 26 August 2018 after winning the 2018 Zimbabwean general election.
On the evening of 14 November 2017, elements of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) gathered around Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, and seized control of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and key areas of the city. The next day, the ZDF issued a statement saying that it was not a coup d'état and that President Robert Mugabe was safe, although the situation would return to normal only after the ZDF had dealt with the "criminals" around Mugabe responsible for the socio-economic problems of Zimbabwe. Jacob Zuma, then-President of South Africa, phoned Mugabe and was told that Mugabe was under house arrest but otherwise "fine".
The Herald is a state-owned daily newspaper published in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.
