Date: 16/06/2006
Source: North West Provincial Government
Title: Molewa: Youth Day


  North West Premier Mme Edna Molewa’s address and introduction of keynote speaker and national Minister of Transport, Honourable Jeff Radebe, at the Youth Day commemoration and 30th anniversary of the June 16 Soweto and Connected Uprisings, Popo Molefe Soccer Stadium, Merafong Local Municipality

Programme Director and North West Provincial Commissioner, Ms Connie Modiba
Our Keynote Speaker, Minister of Transport, Honourable Jeff Radebe
MECs and Members of the Provincial Legislature present
North West Provincial Youth Commission
Chairperson, Mr Kabelo Mataboge and Provincial Youth Commissioners
The Executive Mayor of the Merafong Local Municipality, Cllr Desmond van Rooyen
District Mayors, Mayors and Speakers of Municipalities present
Our Honoured Traditional Leaders
Leaders of our Faith-Based Organisations,
Organised Business and Labour
Members of our Law Enforcement Agencies
Members of the Media
Young People of the North West Province
Ba Gaetsho Dumelang!

Today I feel young, very young. Today I want to go public with my age which I have kept as a guarded secret ever since I became the Premier of the North West Province more than two years ago.

Because I am turning 21 today, I will not give you a speech about the challenges facing us as young people but instead I have invited Minister Jeff Radebe, who has just turned 36 and therefore no longer qualifies as youth to give a keynote address outlining the challenges facing us as youth as we commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the June 16 Soweto and Connected Uprisings.

My job today therefore is to call upon all of you young people, my peers to enjoy this day to the fullest, while bearing in mind that it is a day dedicated to all those of your age who sacrificed their valuable youth so that you and I can enjoy the democracy and freedom we won more than 12 years ago.

I must warn you, however, that this hard-won freedom and democracy comes with certain responsibilities. In particular, we will rely on ourselves as youth to deepen this democracy, protect and promote it so that we do not ever again have to confront the challenges that compelled the youth of 1976 to take to the streets to determine the kind of future that they wanted for themselves and the county of South Africa.

Because of the sacrifices of the youth of 1976, South Africa was able to attain freedom and democracy in 1994, whose fruits we continue to enjoy today.

However, as I have said, with this freedom comes with certain challenges and responsibilities which we will have to address head-on as youth in order to build the kind of non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa for which the youth of 1976 sacrificed their lives for.

Some of these challenges include access to quality education, youth economic empowerment, issues of moral regeneration, the fight against poverty and unemployment and the epic battle against HIV and AIDS.

But I am certain that if we adopt the same vigour and vigilance that defined the youth of 1976, all of these challenges will be overcome sooner than we hope.

I have no doubt that among us today we have the future Mandela’s, Tambo’s, Sisulu’s, Moses Kotane’s, Edna Molewa’s and Jeff Radebe’s.

Without further ado then, please allow me to introduce our guest of honour and Minister of Transport, Honourable Jeff Radebe to come and address us.

Issued by: Office of the Premier, North West Provincial Government
16 June 2006