Programme director,
Members of Executive Council here present,
MP's and MPL's,
Executive Mayors present,
Councillors,
Limpopo Youth Commission Chairperson and other Commissioners,
Leaders of Political Parties,
Leadership of Youth formations in the province
Veterans of the 1976 youth movement,
Young people of Limpopo,
Comrades and Friends

Theme: Entrenching democracy. All Youth to the polls!

We have gathered here in Modimolle in the Waterberg district of our province to celebrate Youth Day. National Youth Day, 16 June 2008, marks the 32nd anniversary of the Soweto uprising and 14 years of our democracy.

We commemorate and celebrate this day today with a deep sense of pride on what the youth of our country have achieved in the last fourteen years of our freedom. There can be no reason for anyone to doubt the far reaching changes which have happened in this country as a result of the events of 16 June 1976 and many other battles which followed thereafter.

It is days such as these, when South Africans look back with pride in appreciation of the sterling role which many of our people played in their own liberation. It is indeed befitting that this commemoration takes place here at Ephraim Mogale Stadium, a name which reminds us of one of the most dedicated youth leaders in our struggle against apartheid. We marvel at the heroism and the spirit of bravery demonstrated by many young people who came before us, who many today are now leaders of this nation.

History tells us that this generation of young people, were fighting against not just Afrikaans as a language, but against an oppressive system which treated people like animals.

As a result of their courage and resistance, this youth earned themselves the right to be called "the roaring young lions" of Oliver Tambo.

We should be proud as young people of the efforts we have made to bring our country to where it is today, and for making 16 June a recognised official holiday. You should derive satisfaction from the fact that your perspectives are today accommodated in government and many have even found expression in the Constitution of the land and in other laws.

The unfortunate thing however, is that we celebrate this day against the backdrop of the recent attacks on nationals of other countries who live in our country. This is shameful episode in the life of this nation, which we should never allow to be repeated again in this country.

We will continue to use platforms such as these to call on young people of our country to never allow them to be used as tools of violence and destruction, against their brothers and sisters from other countries.

Programme director

Like the rest of the country, Limpopo has a very high youth population. This compels us to pay particular attention as government to the needs of this growing sector of our population. Since 1994, we have been mainstreaming youth development initiatives across government departments and municipalities throughout the province. We are pleased to see good progress in this regard, especially with the implementation of the National Youth Service programme. To date the programme has registered about 2 500 youth volunteers who will be involved in various Expanded Public Works (EPWP) initiatives.

This programme offers an opportunity for young people to become creators of their own jobs and to learn new skills and patriotic values while at the same time contributing to the well-being of their communities.

We have also taken measures to increase access to information for the majority of young people, living in outlying areas by establishing 15 operational Youth Advisory Centers (YAC) across the province. These centres are being improved so that, they can be visited by any young person who needs information on careers, employment, and on how to start up a business.

The internship, learnership, and bursary scheme programmes have also succeeded a great deal in skilling young people and drawing significant numbers of unemployed graduates into the world of work.

Once again, we call on the private sector to strengthen their practical contribution towards youth development by embarking on public-private partnerships wherever possible.

The opportunities which young people now have can only be sustained and extended if all sectors of society can join hands to support youth development.

Programme director

However, we are the first to acknowledge that the challenges faced by young people of today have become unique and different from those faced by the youth of 1976. While it was easy to make the country ungovernable through petrol bombs and limpet mines, the task to rebuild the country has become even more daunting and complex. It requires much more than singing slogans and toyi-toying. It requires a new breed of young people who are conscious of their purpose and role in society.

One of the most important lessons we are learning is that despite the youth being the most dynamic, energetic, vibrant and talented of the sectors of our society, they continually find themselves vulnerable, excluded and marginalised.

One of the biggest challenges facing our post-apartheid liberation period is the issue of the rampant decline in morality. Immorality, or lack of morality, has now become the order of the day in most parts of our country.

We see violence and confrontation underpinning many demonstrations that take place. Other forms of immorality that we see today include the abuse of the elderly, mostly by our young people. This takes place through rapes and the denial of their pension grants by their families and the very same young people.

We know that in most cases, if the youth are not victims of crime, they are usually the perpetrators. Even though poverty does play a role in the perpetuation of crime, the decay in moral standards compounds the situation even further.

As you will all know, the province is still reeling from the spate of child murders which have been going on in this part of our province for some time. These are incidences which tell us that something is definitely wrong with the moral fibre of our society.

The ills of immorality have crystallised and heightened to the extent that people with negative thoughts have begun to take advantage of our newly found freedoms.

Programme director

We also cannot ignore the role which alcohol and drug abuse play in this phenomenon. Young men and women under the age of 18 continue to frequent shebeens and taverns as if this is the most normal thing to do.

Teenage pregnancy continues to remain one of the critical challenges facing young female learners and this need to be addressed.

We believe that something has to be done to restore the social fabric of our nation before it is too late to correct the situation from deteriorating further.

Organs of civil society (non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations (CBOs), youth, churches and women's movements), the trade union movement and political structures in the communities must be mobilised to speak in one voice around the issue of mending the social fabric and ubuntu. We should see the recently adopted school pledge only as the beginning of this campaign.

The media must also show positive young role models to inspire other young people to live fruitful and productive lives. The glorification of war, violence, sexual abuses, alcohol and drug abuse on TV needs to be revisited.

An occasion such as this, must afford us the opportunity to remind each other about not only the rights that we enjoy, but also our responsibilities and obligations towards our democracy. It is a well known fact that, our democracy affords all citizens every avenue for making their voices heard without resorting to actions that infringe on the rights of others, or which cause injury to persons and damage to property.

Our hard earned freedom must come with responsibility and hard work. Freedom can never mean that people are allowed to break laws or disregard the rights of others with impunity.

We will only be paying a rhetorical commitment to this democracy if we do not take practical steps to advance and defend it.

Our commitment to this democracy must not only be through slogans and songs, but also through the rejection of what we regard as contemptuous to the spirit of our freedom and justice. This is a civic duty which society has bestowed upon every citizen including young people.

As they say; an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Evil prevails when good men and women fold their hands and do nothing.

Once again, we wish to call upon the youth of our country to come forward and occupy the forward trenches of the struggle to intensify the offensive against ignorance, lack of skills, poverty, diseases and underdevelopment.

Like your predecessors did, you too can rise to the occasion and help us to keep the flame of freedom and democracy burning.

As we approach the general elections next year, we urge all of you who are eligible to cast votes, to start making the necessary arrangements. Make sure you have a bar-coded identity document so that you can actively participate in the democratic process. This is what the youth of 1976 gave their lives for.

The youth of today must also live behind a legacy which future generations of young people will be proud to identify with.

Long live the spirit of 16 June!

I thank you