When less is too much…

We are indeed the generation of less. Coming from Youth Month, if we can have an honest introspection of the calibre of the current youth and our socio-economic conditions, we are far from the achievers of yesteryear.

We are, as I see it, not what the youth of ’76 aspired for us to become. Those young men and women, who today are raising their own children, are forced to come to terms with the stark reality that we might have been given far too much, far too early.

While we deserved freedom, those who raised us were never prepared for the lesson that with every right comes responsibility and everything must always be done in moderation.

We are less in so many ways: the fatherless, motherless, childless, jobless, qualification- and aspiration-less generation.

We must be adult enough to admit that we are fast becoming those that we hoped we would never become. Those we blamed for our hardships, those we believed put us at disadvantages … We are fast becoming them, leaving scores of children parentless being raised by grandparents.

We have become the generation of “please put in a good word for me at your work, my friend”, but never wanting to work too hard, waking up early and putting our expensive shoes to work as we knock from door to door with printed resumes.

Can we sell ourselves professionally when educationally we are still “less”? The quality of our education has declined, the number of graduates, the matriculants, are just less.

We are not driven and are stuck waiting for the next handout.

With the promises of free housing, the youth are quick to demand an RDP house, no longer dreaming of their starter-pack home in a funky young neighbourhood.

And with a lack of aspiration comes a decay in the moral fibre. We are angry at a society that refuses to give in to our temper tantrums, we are rude to a society we believe is victimising us for undermining our lack of education, lack of parental figures, lack of housing …

We need to stop with the less and bring on more. More work, more self-worth, because once we learn to push ourselves more, we begin to expect more from ourselves.

Kekeletso Nakeli-Dhliwayo