The National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) has launched its Youth Month programme for this year.
Speaking at the launch at the Hector Pieterson Memorial in Soweto yesterday NYDA’s executive chair Yershen Pillay said: “History is littered with examples of young South Africans who have made the ultimate sacrifice for a better, more peaceful, democratic and prosperous South Africa.”
Pillay went on to praise the South African youth for mobilising and condemning the recent xenophobic attacks that rocked the country this year.
The notion that today’s youth is complacent, dependent and lazy was dismissed by Pillay as an extreme generalisation.
This year, Youth Month will be celebrated under the theme, “Youth Moving South Africa Forward.”
This coming weekend on June 6 the NYDA will host the annual My History Educational Tour on the 1976 youth uprisings in Soweto.
The event will give school pupils a change to participate in a cultural and historical tour of all the monuments related to the 1976 youth uprisings.
A social dialogue which will give young people a chance to debate and share their ideas on various issues will be included this year. In the dialogue, the youth will look at where the nation comes from and where it ought to be 60 years after the adoption of the Freedom Charter.
A new NYDA office will be open in Eldorado Park on June 13 as part of these celebrations.
“I urge all stakeholders to support us in ensuring that Youth Month 2015 is the best, most eventful youth month ever,” said Pillay.
