A look at the youth’s future in SA

To look ahead, see opportunity amid adversity and create opportunities is how today’s children will make a success of tomorrow.

This was the message at Hoërskool Linden’s annual business breakfast on 12 October.

The morning event saw three panellists on stage talking about the future of South Africa and how the youth could build their future amid the instability the country currently faces.

At this fourth annual breakfast, Piet Croucamp, a relatively controversial political scientist, and political and policy specialist Theo Venter, spoke on the instability of the country and whether or not the youth have any future to look forward to.

Leading the panel was the SABC’s Cobus Bester.

“In times of instability, you find great opportunity,” Venter told learners, parents and teachers present.

He said the perceptions young people have were very much impacted by how their parents thought, how their schools’ functioned and even what kind of newspaper was read in their household.

Venter said he expected the African National Congress to remain in power for the next 10 years even if they lost a few provinces to other parties.

Croucamp spoke of a weak middle class in South Africa and that most children would take much longer to have a similar or better life than what their parents have because of the country’s lack of economic growth and the broken households that many children come from.

Despite this, he advised the learners who asked which career they should pursue, that there were many opportunities for those who have entrepreneurial skills and who are willing to learn.

“The world has changed a lot in the last 15 years,” he said. “When you are older, your children will not recognise this world you live in now.”

Croucamp advised that to be a success, no matter the career you followed, was to be curious.

“I have never met an unsuccessful curious person in my life.”

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