Date: 16/06/2003
Source: National Youth Commission (NYC)
Title: Mbalula: Youth Month: Youth Day celebration
STATEMENT DELIVERED BY THE NATIONAL YOUTH COMMISSION CHAIRPERSON, JABU MBALULA, ON THE OCCASION OF THE 27th ANNIVERSARY OF THE SOWETO UPRISING, NATIONAL YOUTH DAY, Van Reebeck Stadium, Emalahleni Local Municipality, 16 June 2003
President of the Republic
Ministers
Mpumalanga Premier
Members of the Executive Council
Executive Mayor of the Nkangala District Municipality
Emalahleni Local Municipality Mayor
Comrades and compatriots
Ladies and Gentlemen
This year 2003, our country meets to mark the 27th Anniversary of the Soweto Uprising. We salute the youth for daring to rise up against the tyrant's might and to dismiss a notion that the apartheid regime was invincible.
In 2002, the Year of the Volunteer for Reconstruction and Development, our country saw young people volunteering their services to combat the social ills of poverty and underdevelopment.
It was during that year in which young people came forward in their thousands to renovate public hospitals and assisted police to process cases in the police stations and got involved in other activities which seek to uplift our people. During the same period youth, recruited under the National Youth Service Programme of the National Youth Commission continued to perform service work as part of the expanded community public works programme of the Department of Public Works.
In the same statement we made last year, we conveyed a message to the Provincial Executive Councils of the Governments of Gauteng and Western Cape to set up Youth Commissions to effectively respond to the development needs of the youth of our country. Today we wish to re-iterate that call, as our country needs a uniform form approach to youth development.
We also reported on the on-going work of the Commission which included ongoing initiatives to test the feasibility of the National Youth Service Programme. As part of that work youth conducted peer education workshops on Positive Living where information was imparted on the importance of safe sex. To make this work known, the Commission conducted outreach campaigns in places where youth are found, especially the previously disadvantaged youth. Youth imbizos were held in various provinces including the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Western Cape and North West. This work is still underway, and more partners are coming into the fold to implement programmes that seek to address challenges that face youth.
To commemorate and celebrate the Soweto Uprising 1976, the youth sector led by the National Youth Commission, Umsombovu Youth Fund and the South African Youth Councils conducts youth service work as part of the Youth Development Month. All this work takes under the theme "Youth Action to Seize the Opportunities of Democracy: Pushing back the Frontiers of Poverty".
The youth sector adopted this theme because in our history of blood and effort, our country's young borne much of the brunt of struggle. For many years under apartheid they were quite literally and deliberately, deprived of a future by a system, which kept all blacks in bondage in the country of their birth. For young people it meant enormous deprivation just at the very time when people should expect to look forward to a full life. As youth emerged from a meagre training and education that was available, they were prohibited from pursuing many avenues of employment reserved for a certain population. They grew up into a society which was in the iron grip of repression. They knew arrest, torture and death itself.
As we commemorate the epic of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, as well as nearing the completion of the First Decade of the Freedom we are once more reminded of heroic deeds of the gallant youth of our country.
As youth of our country, we celebrate and commemorate June 16 1976, with fitting spirit of seizing the opportunities of democracy.
Such opportunities include:
The freedom of our country's youth to freely explore and express themselves;
* Possibilities created for young people to participate in arts, sports, culture and recreation including enablement to contribute to the raising of the name and pride of our nation and to be engaged in the process of redefinition,
* Possibilities created for youth to enhance their knowledge and skills which came in the improvement of the quality of education, the transformation of higher education and the redefinition of further education and training;
* The expansion of skills and affirmative action that has provided enormous opportunities to black youth in particular;
* Brought about the positive in the economy and mobilization of resources which have created the possibility to eradicate poverty from among our youth and people
* The establishment of the National Youth Commission and the Umsombovu Youth Fund which for the first time in our history remain the true champions of youth interest and continue to promote integrated youth development;
* Created the conditions for the expansion of the provision of primary health care social grants and food aid to all people, especially the poor;
* Led to the enormous provision of water, electricity and basic services, thus freeing millions of youth, especially young women, from the burden of diseases and darkness, and from the burden of fetching water and collecting wood.
These are some of the opportunities our government has created for our county's youth which we must use to advance ourselves and our country as a whole. As we proceed to 27 April 2004, our country's youth have a good reason to join the masses as we will be celebrating that historic moment.
Our country's youth is fully aware that the centuries of deliberate underdevelopment and impoverishment of the majority cannot be undone overnight. In the next ten years youth development should move towards the centre of our national development programme, and the following are critical challenges that should constitute such as programme;
* Increase youth employment, further raise their skills levels and create more opportunities for youth self-employment through enterprise development, cooperatives and investment, trade and other ventures;
* Improve the health of young people - fight sexually transmitted infections, improve physical health, nutrition and others;
* Expand youth participation in arts, sports and culture and to protect the rights and interests our artist;
* Integrate youth into economic activity, including as owners of the economy;
* Continue to implement the comprehensive and integrated human resource development of skills most urgently required by our growing economy;
* Deepen our knowledge and understanding of the democratic process as well as our activism;
* Increase the volumes of youth participation in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and raise national enthusiasm about this field;
* Intensify the volunteer campaign, and
* Continue to fight crime, corruption and moral decay and erode the base of these social ills among the youth.
With our continued resolve to better the lives of youth in our country, especially the previously disadvantaged youth, we are certain that our country is going to change radically and irreversibly for the better.
The united front of youth leadership made up of the National Youth Commission, Umsobomvu Youth Fund and the South African Youth Council, will take youth development to 2014 with much vigour and greater enthusiasm.
Long live the spirit of 1976!
Thank you
Issued by the National Youth Commission
Source: National Youth Commission (NYC)
Title: Mbalula: Youth Month: Youth Day celebration
STATEMENT DELIVERED BY THE NATIONAL YOUTH COMMISSION CHAIRPERSON, JABU MBALULA, ON THE OCCASION OF THE 27th ANNIVERSARY OF THE SOWETO UPRISING, NATIONAL YOUTH DAY, Van Reebeck Stadium, Emalahleni Local Municipality, 16 June 2003
President of the Republic
Ministers
Mpumalanga Premier
Members of the Executive Council
Executive Mayor of the Nkangala District Municipality
Emalahleni Local Municipality Mayor
Comrades and compatriots
Ladies and Gentlemen
This year 2003, our country meets to mark the 27th Anniversary of the Soweto Uprising. We salute the youth for daring to rise up against the tyrant's might and to dismiss a notion that the apartheid regime was invincible.
In 2002, the Year of the Volunteer for Reconstruction and Development, our country saw young people volunteering their services to combat the social ills of poverty and underdevelopment.
It was during that year in which young people came forward in their thousands to renovate public hospitals and assisted police to process cases in the police stations and got involved in other activities which seek to uplift our people. During the same period youth, recruited under the National Youth Service Programme of the National Youth Commission continued to perform service work as part of the expanded community public works programme of the Department of Public Works.
In the same statement we made last year, we conveyed a message to the Provincial Executive Councils of the Governments of Gauteng and Western Cape to set up Youth Commissions to effectively respond to the development needs of the youth of our country. Today we wish to re-iterate that call, as our country needs a uniform form approach to youth development.
We also reported on the on-going work of the Commission which included ongoing initiatives to test the feasibility of the National Youth Service Programme. As part of that work youth conducted peer education workshops on Positive Living where information was imparted on the importance of safe sex. To make this work known, the Commission conducted outreach campaigns in places where youth are found, especially the previously disadvantaged youth. Youth imbizos were held in various provinces including the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Western Cape and North West. This work is still underway, and more partners are coming into the fold to implement programmes that seek to address challenges that face youth.
To commemorate and celebrate the Soweto Uprising 1976, the youth sector led by the National Youth Commission, Umsombovu Youth Fund and the South African Youth Councils conducts youth service work as part of the Youth Development Month. All this work takes under the theme "Youth Action to Seize the Opportunities of Democracy: Pushing back the Frontiers of Poverty".
The youth sector adopted this theme because in our history of blood and effort, our country's young borne much of the brunt of struggle. For many years under apartheid they were quite literally and deliberately, deprived of a future by a system, which kept all blacks in bondage in the country of their birth. For young people it meant enormous deprivation just at the very time when people should expect to look forward to a full life. As youth emerged from a meagre training and education that was available, they were prohibited from pursuing many avenues of employment reserved for a certain population. They grew up into a society which was in the iron grip of repression. They knew arrest, torture and death itself.
As we commemorate the epic of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, as well as nearing the completion of the First Decade of the Freedom we are once more reminded of heroic deeds of the gallant youth of our country.
As youth of our country, we celebrate and commemorate June 16 1976, with fitting spirit of seizing the opportunities of democracy.
Such opportunities include:
The freedom of our country's youth to freely explore and express themselves;
* Possibilities created for young people to participate in arts, sports, culture and recreation including enablement to contribute to the raising of the name and pride of our nation and to be engaged in the process of redefinition,
* Possibilities created for youth to enhance their knowledge and skills which came in the improvement of the quality of education, the transformation of higher education and the redefinition of further education and training;
* The expansion of skills and affirmative action that has provided enormous opportunities to black youth in particular;
* Brought about the positive in the economy and mobilization of resources which have created the possibility to eradicate poverty from among our youth and people
* The establishment of the National Youth Commission and the Umsombovu Youth Fund which for the first time in our history remain the true champions of youth interest and continue to promote integrated youth development;
* Created the conditions for the expansion of the provision of primary health care social grants and food aid to all people, especially the poor;
* Led to the enormous provision of water, electricity and basic services, thus freeing millions of youth, especially young women, from the burden of diseases and darkness, and from the burden of fetching water and collecting wood.
These are some of the opportunities our government has created for our county's youth which we must use to advance ourselves and our country as a whole. As we proceed to 27 April 2004, our country's youth have a good reason to join the masses as we will be celebrating that historic moment.
Our country's youth is fully aware that the centuries of deliberate underdevelopment and impoverishment of the majority cannot be undone overnight. In the next ten years youth development should move towards the centre of our national development programme, and the following are critical challenges that should constitute such as programme;
* Increase youth employment, further raise their skills levels and create more opportunities for youth self-employment through enterprise development, cooperatives and investment, trade and other ventures;
* Improve the health of young people - fight sexually transmitted infections, improve physical health, nutrition and others;
* Expand youth participation in arts, sports and culture and to protect the rights and interests our artist;
* Integrate youth into economic activity, including as owners of the economy;
* Continue to implement the comprehensive and integrated human resource development of skills most urgently required by our growing economy;
* Deepen our knowledge and understanding of the democratic process as well as our activism;
* Increase the volumes of youth participation in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and raise national enthusiasm about this field;
* Intensify the volunteer campaign, and
* Continue to fight crime, corruption and moral decay and erode the base of these social ills among the youth.
With our continued resolve to better the lives of youth in our country, especially the previously disadvantaged youth, we are certain that our country is going to change radically and irreversibly for the better.
The united front of youth leadership made up of the National Youth Commission, Umsobomvu Youth Fund and the South African Youth Council, will take youth development to 2014 with much vigour and greater enthusiasm.
Long live the spirit of 1976!
Thank you
Issued by the National Youth Commission
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