Accelerating youth economic emancipation for a sustainable future
Young people are being excluded from economic life by a combination of joblessness and barriers to the creation of start-ups.
Government and the NYDA officially launched the 2023 national youth month in Soweto at Uncle Toms Hall last week.
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Youth month should be a vehicle used to leverage the power and the potential of young people in South Africa. Young people are rapidly losing their purpose in terms of being given full participation opportunities in the economy.
Pearl Pillay from the NYDAsaid, “June symbolises youth civic power, the ability and power that young people have when standing in solidarity, showing that we are capable of creating change in our communities.”
According to Bonga Makhanya, founder and executive chairman of South African Youth Economic Council, young people of South Africa have lost hope in everything.
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Nothing works completely on their favour including the same youth development opportunities.
“We are in a state of complete despondency. Young people have lost hope in terms of participation in the economy, level of unemployment and basic education crisis,” said Makhanya.
The 2023 youth month is commemorated under the theme: Accelerating youth economic emancipation for a sustainable future. This means connecting young people to opportunities which are youth centred.
Makhanya added that the NYDA needs to be capacitated because young people see it as their vehicle towards a better economic future.
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Young people are being excluded from economic life by a combination of joblessness and barriers to the creation of start-ups.
Unleashing the energy, entrepreneurial spirit and technological genius of young people is not just a moral imperative, but an economic necessity.
Makhanya concluded with advising the NYDA to start working for the young people of South Africa, “To create deliberate funding mechanism to ensure that young people can participate at a meaningful level in the economy. Also not reduce young people into a box ticking exercise.”
