39th Youth Month anniversary celebrated
Greater Tzaneen Municipality in partnership with Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) hosted the 39th Youth Month Anniversary under the theme “Youth Moving South Africa Forward” at the Tzaneen Showgrounds on Friday.
Young people from all the five local municipalities within the Mopani District Municipality attended the event and the attendance was very positive. Stakeholders were invited to come and educate the youth on various issues which affect them in their everyday lives. Unemployment, poverty, alcohol and substance abuse, peer pressure, illiteracy were among the issues which were discussed. Stakeholders did presentations and the audience was given a platform to ask questions.
The Greater Tzaneen Municipality Mayor Dikeledi Mmetle together with her executive committee also attended the event where she spoke to the youth. She gave them a background on the history of June 16, 1976. “The Apartheid government introduced Bantu Education to ensure that the black communities remained inferior to the whites. They knew that uneducated youth is easily fooled” said Mmetle. She further said that the youth of 1976 were faced with inferior education but the youth of today are faced with worse because they get chances to go to school but they don’t use them. “We must work together to eradicate illiteracy so that we overcome poverty and unemployment in our society. Education is a societal matter and that is why as a municipality we give out bursaries every year to ensure that we assist the youth to get proper education” added Mmetle. When the youth were given a platform to ask questions, one mentioned that the factor that leads youth to engage in drugs, alcohol and commit crimes is because there are no recreational facilities in rural areas and that they are struggling to get jobs. “I was very impressed with the issues you raised. Some were very provoking but I am very glad you know what you want. All points were mentioned in the discussions I assure you that as a municipality we will make sure that all your pleas are resolved” said Mmetle. She also encouraged the youth to take advantage of government programmes to establish businesses.
Department of Health, Statistics South Africa, department of Labour, National Youth Development Agency, SEDA, South African Youth Council and Greater Tzaneen Economic Development Agency were the stakeholders that attended and gave presentations.
