Shifting currents in youth development

Masethe Tshepo
Many ANCYL presidents, from Cde Lembede to Cde Malema, led and continue to lead the cause of youth at different times involving different conditions.

What used to keep many of us, including those leaders, awake at night is the nightmare of a growing sense, amongst young people, of hopelessness, lack of self-exertion, self-reliance and general enthusiasm about the future. Earlier leaders, however, prevailed over conditions that militated against their progress to deliver political freedom.

I often asked myself how economic citizenship is ever going to dawn from a nightmare that interrupts our sleep in these times of political freedom. After many false dawns, South Africa has, however, over the past few years changed for the better and it is surprising and a bit disturbing to hear calls from some political youth wings insisting that institutions of youth, such as the Youth Commission, be disestablished instead of having their efficiency and effectiveness increased.

Working closely with various institutions such as SALGA, which itself is a voluntary association of municipalities, we have over the years developed various important strategies to take youth development forward. Such strategies are outcomes of over years of discussion, consultation and debate with various interested stakeholders, a concerted struggle and meeting of people’s energies and love to produce hope.

I have travelled across hundreds of communities in the Capricorn district municipal area with Executive Mayor Motalane Dewet Monakedi. What many young people need is these institutions to implement those strategies.

At municipal level, Capricorn District municipality in Limpopo is a possible national benchmark in the implementation of youth development. What many young people need is such simple, yet powerful things as development of confidence, respect of time, appreciating the centrality of good interpersonal relationships to success. Life-skills, talent development, work ethics, problem solving and decision-making skills are also impossible to succeed without even in spaces where opportunities are there for the picking.

There is perhaps hidden sense in calls to disband this and that structure but some of our decisions may proved a strategic mistake for our country’s youth, hurting their chances to swing us safely into the 21st century.

As long as we build, destroy and rebuild for invalid reasons, no future institution(s) will have either the clout or credibility to translate existing strategies into substantive economic power shift towards in the main the black youth.