President Cyril Ramaphosa.
- South Africa will celebrate Youth day on Tuesday, 16 June commemorating the 1976 Soweto uprising.
- President Cyril Ramaphosa says the youth of the post-apartheid era have also broken their own barriers, changing the world.
- He has challenged them to come up with initiatives to deal with the unemployment crisis.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has challenged the youth of South Africa to craft and design programmes that will make the country reach its developmental goals and address the unemployment crisis.
In his weekly newsletter on Monday, the President said the government would now be looking to the innovative and pioneering spirit of the youth to come up with solutions to the unemployment crisis – and that the solutions benefit them along with their communities.
Social upliftment initiatives
Ramaphosa’s Monday newsletter was published a day before the country celebrates Youth Day on 16 June commemorating the Soweto uprising which took place in 1976.
“Throughout history young people have been a driving force for change. In just the last few decades, young people have waged numerous struggles against injustice, from the 1968 student uprising in Paris, to the anti-war movement in the United States in the 1960s, to the anti-colonial struggle in many African and Asian countries, to the fight against apartheid, to the Arab Spring.
“Most recently, young people have been at the forefront of the #BlackLivesMatter movement that has gained global support in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in the United States,” the President said in the newsletter.
READ HERE | Unless we end the war against SA women, dream of a new society will remain elusive
Ramaphosa said the youth must develop and lead social upliftment initiatives, adding they must also use the same energies they used to fighting for equal higher education towards equitable access to healthcare, transformation of land ownership and gender justice.
He said recent demonstrations in institutions such as Oxford University where students have called for the removal of British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes’ statue, just like those from South Africa did five years ago, showed that youth across the globe had found common cause.
South African youth of 2020 more than meet the high standard set by their predecessors.
– Cyril Ramaphosa
“They are tearing down statues and symbols of racism, demanding the decolonisation of educational curricula, and calling for institutions to address racism and social exclusion.
“And so, as we pay tribute to the generation of 1976 on this Youth Day, we also salute the youth of post-apartheid South Africa, the worthy inheritors of this noble legacy.”
Ramaphosa said programmes such as the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative, the National Youth Service showed that government wants to support the country’s young people to see their ideas through from incubation to opening the doors of their businesses.
READ | Beyond the numbers: The social impact of Covid-19
The president said the youth of today was building a world that is more just, equal, sustainable and at peace.
“Those of us who were part of student movements during the apartheid era are often asked what we think of the young people of today. There is a temptation to retreat into nostalgia about ‘the glory days’ of student politics and youth struggle, never to be replicated.
“But just as the youth of yesteryear defined their mission, today’s youth have defined theirs. South African youth of 2020 more than meet the high standard set by their predecessors. They are optimistic, resilient and courageous, often in the face of the harshest of circumstances.”
