Date: 11/07/2003
Source: Eastern Cape Provincial Government
Title: Moerane-Mamase: World Population Day, Eastern Cape


Speech by the eastern cape MEC for social development, NEO MOERANE-MAMASE, DURING THE LAUNCH OF THE WORLD POPULATION DAY, Graaff-Reinet, 11 July 2003

Today I felt more than privileged to commemorate and celebrate World Population Day in one of the areas in South Africa that is rich in diversity because, Programme Director, in Graaff-Reinet it is where you can find all the people of different races. Secondly it the home of leaders who are coming from different political schools of persuasion who have tirelessly fought for unity among the world nations, to mention the few Robert Sobukwe, Beyers Naude and others have demonstrated that unity for any society can conquer poverty and all other social ills facing our society.

Graaff-Reinet has been identified as a major route in the Eastern Cape and that has posed a great challenge to the young people who find themselves trapped in poverty shackles and for them sex work has been the only form of employment.

The theme for this year is " Together building a people's contract for sustainable youth development". One of the problems facing youth today is poverty, illiteracy, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, HIV/AIDS and unemployment.

The statistics are indicating that more than 50% of our population live below poverty datum line and most affected are the youth. Government in general regards those statistics as a social crisis and as the department of Social Development we are at the receiving end of these social ills.

We appeal to all young people to join hands with the government in the fight against poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and unemployment. Working with Youth commission, which is the government institution to ensure that all youth problems are attended to and resolved.

We want to urge the youth of Graaff-Reinet to mobilise themselves and be engaged in the HIV/AIDS education campaign in the families, communities, sex workers and the truck drivers. Though we recognize this area as the major route for goods transportation, it is also safe to understand that due to the high rate of unemployment young people use truck drivers who spend little time with their families as their source of income through sex work.

As the department of Social Development we will strive to ensure that youth is in the mainstream of our programmes like poverty alleviation and more young people have worked very close with the department in the Home Based Community Programmes for HIV/AIDS as volunteers.

Again the government encourages families to foster the children that have been orphaned by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The statistics indicates that South Africa in general shows that life expectancy has declined and South Africans are now expected to live less than they would have last year and this has been attributed to HIV/AIDS. The average life expectancy for South Africans is just under 51 years.

Families, communities and organs of civil society have to join hands with the government to tackle problems facing youth with the sense of urgency and purposeful action. Many young South Africans grew up in poverty and in spite of high educational levels unemployment remains a major problem.

We want to use this day to encourage all spheres of government and private sector to work together in tackling this fearful monster " Poverty".

The tide has turned " Build a peoples contract for better families".

I thank you.

Source: Eastern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.ecprov.gov.za)