Premier of the Northern Cape, Ms Hazel Jenkins
Provincial MEC for Safety and Liaison, Mr Patrick Mabilo
Acting Provincial MEC for Education, Mr David Rooi
Mayor of Sol Plaatjie Municipality, Councilor Agnes Ntlangula
Provincial Chairperson of the CPF Board, Mr Ephraim Homan
Provincial Chairperson of Youth Against Crime, Mr Tebogo Molapo
Deputy National Commissioner, Lieutenant General Mofomme
SAPS Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Basson
Distinguished guests
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
We thank the organisers and the leadership of the Northern Cape government in the organisation of this important campaign. Although you may be responsible for the whole organisation, we believe these two days are about the youth.
We therefore approach such engagements not as experts who are beyond reproach or who know better; but we seek to also learn from you as young people. You are after all, the future. We therefore cannot shape our country’s future as elected leaders if we do not take you on board.
As police leadership, we need to state upfront that we do not approach this campaign as experts who know better than you, but as equal partners in finding solutions to eradicate crime, particularly substance abuse. As they say in Sesotho: “pinyana ga e re ping, e utlwile ping e kgolo, le botlhale ba phala botswa phalaneng.”
The campaign theme: “Youth Act Against Crime” ties in appropriately with our ministry’s approach in stemming crime, particularly against women and children. In fact it is not a mere theme but a challenge and an undertaking from young people to reconfirm you to making our country and our continent proud.
I welcome all the young people from Galeshewe and the surrounding areas. I particularly enjoy speaking to young people because you have passion, the energy and the drive. As the youth of Galeshewe, you are the future. The commitment you have shown by being here this afternoon, is an affirmation of your commitment to give crime the boot.
Young people in this province, in our country, in the continent and in all four corners of our world are daily compounded by crime, prostitution and drugs. These vices and evil manifestations in our society imperil prospect of youth in our respective countries. As the youth in this province and enjoined by your peers countrywide, you cannot and must never abdicate on your responsibilities of ensuring that you remain free from crime, prostitution and drugs.
As young people you live in an imperfect world loaded with indecencies, social ills, civil and drug conflicts. All these social disturbances have placed the picture of young people in doubt. Unless we organise yourselves, it would be difficult to deal with the challenges facing the youth.
Equally we are cognizant that government will not by itself, address the crime problem. Members of society are expected to form part of efforts to address crime. How do we do this? By participating in community policing forums and more directly by reporting crime where you encounter it.
As the youth you are the representative of the future. The damaging impact of drugs is therefore not limited to individual victims, localities and a specific point in time. Your loyalty is contested by various forces including criminal elements, thus a need to form an informed, effective and creative shield around the youth.
The youth fights and defends vigorously what it believes in. This speaks to the difficulty of making the youth to change its adopted ways at each point in time. Its inexperience renders it prone to influence, even to the possibility of taking counter-productive decisions or positions.
Communities and platforms like these should therefore pay special attention to the youth. We also need to develop facilities, interest and guidance for sports and other social activities. We must ensure an environment that is not conducive to crime.
The marginalised represent an easy target for gangs and syndicates; the community and its leaders should therefore pay attention to the issue of social exclusion. Drugs are both a crime and a cause of crime. Good parenting goes a long way in the fight against drugs and drug abuse.
There are also certain forms of crime that are driven by greed rather than need this is particularly the case regarding organised crime. The deviant activities of a few rotten apples in our midst should not be allowed to tempt us to subtract from the human rights of society, the majority of who are responsible law-abiding citizens.
We have a responsibility as leaders and as parents present here this afternoon, not only motivate these young minds to do well at school, but further ensure that we entrench a message of responsibility at an early age. Today we came to Galeshewe to urge you, as young as you are, not to engage or be influenced in any criminal activities.
You need to identify role models within your communities, not idolise criminals whose future is already doomed. All the glamour and glitz which you see being flaunted by these criminals is only temporary and does not last. In fact, I want to instruct police officers in this area to be tough on these heartless criminals, who sell you drugs!
We know that there are such individuals (positive role models) and it is important to influence these learners, especially from an early age. If we look at the scourge of crime and criminal behaviors in some of our communities, we realise that these criminals instill a negative impact on our children. We need to stop such trends as a society.
We have consistently said that we will be tough on criminal elements but we have also stated that we will not tolerate police abuses. We have balanced our approach to policing with emphasising that there will be greater accountability and civilian oversight of the police.
As young people today you need earnestly to begin to think about the many young people who are still under the bondage of drugs, crime and not in control of their lives. Political freedom has been attained which to a large extent was spearheaded by young people. However until the millions of youth enjoy true economic and social justice, we can never really claim that we have a future.
What we need to begin to do is to channel our energies around the destruction of these drug webs. While we focus on the sniffers, the ‘big bosses’ are smiling all the way, without any remorse or care of how much damage they are causing. These are the real thugs we should all target and apprehend.
We particularly call upon youth organisations of all persuasion, the faith based community, the elders are central in our efforts to realise the objectives of the moral regeneration of our communities. It is not “cool” to use drugs.
Working Together, We Can Do More to Eradicate Drug Abuse.
I thank you.
