Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluatuion, Youth Development as well as Administration, Buti Manamela visited the Modimolle Youth Centre for Excellence to encourage young offenders to develop a culture of reading and learning.
Handing over books to the offenders, Deputy Minister encouraged them to read in order to change their lives, develop their minds and connect with worlds that they have never encountered. The objective of Centers of Excellence is to correct and improve the lives of individuals who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law.
Reading is one of the most vital ways in which this can be achieved, as such, campaigns like the read for redemption have been running in centres of excellence. The books will go to the integrated resource centre, located at the Modimolle Youth Centre for Excellence, which was established to equip the young inmates with resources for knowledge and learning.
Young black males in South Africa face a myriad of challenges including a lack of access to education and jobs while there is an abundant access to drugs, alcohol and other social ills. This results in the majority of people in correctional facilities being young black males.
When interacting with the young offenders, Deputy Minister Manamela reminded them that the power to change their lives lay within them.
“The National Youth Policy 2020 was crafted with a focus on young people who want government to open up opportunities so they can take up the opportunities to better their lives,” said Deputy Minister Manamela.
On the Nelson Mandela International Day, Deputy Minister Manamela will spend 67 minutes planting trees and handing over sanitary towels at the Abram Krill orphanage in Modimolle.
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