‘’Young people are makers of history’’
MECs present,
MMCs in attendance,
Legislators and councilors in our midst,
Leaders of youth organisations,
Fellow youth activistAs,
Members of the media,
Comrades:
This year, 2012, our country commemorates the 36th anniversary of the historic June 16, 1976 student uprisings.
The national theme for the 2012 Youth Month is: “Together we can do more to build infrastructure, and fight youth unemployment, poverty and inequality”. In our commemoration activities for Youth Month this year, we are therefore challenged to embark on concerted effort towards mitigating against youth poverty, unemployment and income inequalities.
During his State of the Nation Address this year, the President of the Republic, Mr JG Zuma drew our nation’s attention on the important of infrastructural development as a basis for growing our economy. Our province has since committed a substantial amount of resources towards infrastructural development in our province.
The Gauteng theme for 2012 June Month, as aligned to the national theme therefore is “Kuyasheshwa: Together we can do more to build infrastructure, and fight youth unemployment, poverty and inequality in Gauteng”. This theme for June Month therefore provides us an opportunity to define the exact point of interface between the youth development agenda and infrastructure development programme of our government.
We need to ensure that the infrastructure roll-out does advance the good course of youth development, through the building of facilities that benefit the young people of our province, and by also making it a point that young people do get involved in the process of building this infrastructure and therefore benefit economically.
Ladies and gentlemen, as I stand before you to unveil the Gauteng 2012 Youth Month Programme; I need to make it clear that as Gauteng Provincial Government we consider youth development to be part of our broader service delivery programme.
The programmes we are unveiling today as part of our June Month activities, are indeed part of our integral work as government towards meeting our youth development imperatives. We have simply identified those key youth-specific programmes, and use this month to further profile them.
June Youth Month also offers us an opportunity to remember, commemorate and pay tribute to the heroic selfless actions of young people who sacrificed their lives in the struggle for a free and democratic South Africa.
Despite the work that lies ahead, as GPG we pride ourselves with progress we have made thus far, and continue to make towards the attainment of effective youth development mainstreaming in our province.
Amongst some of the youth development milestones we have achieved include the Y-Age programme currently being implemented by our Department of Economic Development. This programme aims to train and mentor 100 000 young entrepreneurs across Gauteng province, who will in turn contribute immensely towards our economic growth.
We continued to roll out the National Youth Service (NYS) programme. Through this programme, the Department of Infrastructure Development was able to give opportunity to over 2900 young people for a period of 12 months to gain work experience while receiving accredited training in the fields of built environment, health, social development, agriculture, library administration and community safety.
In partnership with the NYDA and Department of Labour, our provincial government is currently in the process of recruiting 2500 youth into the new phase of NYS, which will begin in July this year.
In partnership with the National Department of Human Settlements (NDHS), National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC), City of Tshwane Municipality (CoT), National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), our provincial Department of Local Government and Housing will be launching an NYS project in Winterveld this month. This project shall involve 250 young people in the building of houses in the Winterveld area.
The rationale behind the project is to afford young people an opportunity to acquire various skills in construction and to explore during and beyond the project opportunities in employment opportunities and professional careers in the sector.
As part of rolling-out the infrastructure for youth development, we are currently completing the building of Youth Monument next to Morris Isaacson High School in Soweto.
This monument shall serve as a remembrance for the contribution made by the young people of 1976, and continue to encourage the current generation of young people to make their own contribution towards our societal building.
We continue to encourage youth-biased procurement by all government bodies, in order to promote youth economic empowerment and build capacity of young entrepreneurs. As a matter of practice, we will ensure that throughout the months of June and July, Gauteng Provincial Government and municipalities will promote the procurement of services required with the bias towards youth owned companies. In line with this, all our Departments will be required to account on the youth procurement spent by the end of July.
The recent events that have dominated our public space are that of young people getting involved in criminal activities such as rape, drug abuse and other forms of abuse challenge all of us to take action. As the Gauteng Provincial Government we will be launching a vigorous campaign that focuses of curbing the decaying moral fibre amongst the youth of our province.
Through the Gauteng Planning Commission, we will be embarking on an intensive youth consultation process as part of developing the Gauteng 2055 Strategy, what is popularly referred to as G2055. The youth consultation aims to provide a distinct credible input by young people of Gauteng as to how should Gauteng should look like in 2055. The fundamental objective is to use the scenario planning approach to mainstreaming youth development into the strategic debate about the long term strategic direction of Gauteng City Region.
This Year’s June 16 provincial Commemorations have been planned to take place at Mofolo Park, in Soweto. The event shall be characterised by a series of activities which include service delivery expo and entertainment.
We call on the youth of our province to attend these historic activities and be part of the celebrations of their youthfulness.
Thank you
Address by MEC Lebogang Maile on the occasion of the launch of the Gauteng Youth Month Programme 2012
Province
