Programme Director
Premier of Gauteng Province Mr Makhura
Honourable MEC’s
MMC’s
Head of Department Advocate Tshongweni
Provincial Commissioner- General Mothiba
Regional Area Commissioner, Professor Osiris
Dr Bettina Silbernagi
Protocol observed allow me on this Wednesday morning to deliver my keynote address to this Gauteng Youth Safety Summit.
With humility and respect Programme Director, kindly allow me to give the rationale behind this summit. The Gauteng Youth Safety Summit is a consequence of the Gauteng Safety Indaba that was held by the Premier of Gauteng, Mr David Makhura on the 25th September 2014.
We have convened this Youth Safety Summit in a bid to renew our commitment to fighting crime in the Gauteng City Region. Most if not all stakeholders were invited to grace this memorable event.
This summit is highly representative of most social formations, to name but a few, the Faith Based Organisations (FBO’s), Non- governmental Organisations(NGO’s), Community Based Organisations(CBO’s), Youth Leagues from the different political parties, academics from the different institutions of higher learning , media houses, the inter-governmental representatives, business, civil society , the list is endless. We are an inclusive society that over-rides the differences of age, geographical locations race,gender, class.
We are one society endowed with reason and conscience. We are bound together by a common goal which is making the Gauteng City Region safe.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is an epitome of social cohesion wherein the young citizens of the Gauteng province have converged for their voices to be heard. Ladies and gentlemen for some of you that might have been privileged to attend the first day of the summit yesterday, the accounts and contributions of those who are incarcerated can never go unnoticed.
Although we might not have been able to have every single one of the inmates voice out their stance, we are proud to say we have a sense of what our youth require as support from government on matters that relate to their safety.
Most of the submissions tabled yesterday painted an anomaly wherein most of the incarcerated youth come from depleted families. To a large extent, the dysfunctional family systems contribute towards delinquency.
However, our youth have a responsibility to change their mindset and adapt appropriately.
Programme Director, sobriety and sanity need to take residence in the minds of our lost youth who are engaged in criminality.
Programme Director, I shall not be doing justice to this summit if I do not re-iterate one of the speaker’s profound statement that we are our own resource. In essence
ladies and gentlemen, we are the drivers of our own vehicles called life. We have the ability to make choices as change begins with our own- selves. To our youth who are our main guests as this summit is about them, I hope that you have appreciated this indisputable fact that you are you are the drivers of your vehicles called life.
Programme Director, we are a caring government that believes in and practises public participation. This summit will create space for people with divergent points of view to have an honest facilitated dialogue. We have convened this summit for the youth to advise us on all matters that relate to their safety. We are gathered today with the youth of Gauteng to have them talk about their safety. This is not a summit about youth safety without the youth. Programme Director, this is a youth safety summit in the Gauteng City Region about the youth by the youth.
This, ladies and gentlemen is demonstrative of our commitment as government to ensure that we serve our citizens and stay in-touch with them on a continuous basis. In essence, we are your servants. We are in this government to serve you as the citizens of Gauteng.
Programme Director, youth safety is of utmost importance and the alarming rates of the subculture of violence and crimes committed by our youth is shocking and disturbing. Where are we heading as a people if the safety of our youth is not taken seriously? Nowhere, is the destination. We have to salvage our youth from the scourge of crime ranging from drug abuse to violent crimes. This summit has an obligation to interrogate all corners such that we emerge with a youth safety strategy that will ensure that the levels of crime towards the youth and crime by the youth are reduced.
Ladies and gentlemen, there has to be an observable drastic reduction of crime.
What does it take to engage in observable drastic crime reduction? As the first port of call, we need to fully understand the concept of safety. Understanding the meaning of safety becomes the first and most crucial step. Programme Director, allow me to walk this summit through a simple but profound definition of safety.
Safety means the condition of being protected against physical, social, emotional, spiritual, political, occupational, psychological, educational or any other form of harm. Subsequent to internalising the significance of safety, we can then begin to ensure that we become safe by protecting ourselves from any form of harm as alluded to earlier on.
The next step ladies and gentlemen is the consciousness of the safety of self and safety of others.
This Programme Director is nothing else but the consciousness by individuals to protect themselves and others from any form of harm. Is that not a reasonable expectation Programme Director? We have to learn to be reasonable human beings.
In addition, ladies and gentlemen, let us go out there and drive the advocacy for safety ambassadors. However, we need to define and understand the meaning of the safety ambassadors. Programme Director, safety ambassadors are the eyes and ears of the law enforcement. Safety Ambassadors promote an interest in safety and encourage the popularity of safety. Safety ambassadors who have internalised safety ambassadorship become game changers as it is never business as usual for the criminals. I request we internalise safety ambassadorship.
We have to move away from compliance and advocate for people to internalise our vision as the government of the Gauteng City Region. I appeal to all the delegates of this summit to become safety ambassadors than innocent bystanders. Ladies and gentlemen, safety ambassadors do not choose to be quiet when drug trafficking and abuse take place under their noses. Safety ambassadors ensure that the safety of themselves and others become their business.
I would like to make a passionate appeal to all safety ambassadors to appease and influence their peers, friends, family to appreciate the beauty in safety ambassadorship.
A safe home is a beautiful home. A safe neighbourhood is a beautiful neighbourhood. A safe province is a beautiful province and as the government of Gauteng we want our citizens to be and feel safe. Ladies and gentlemen, safety is a collective responsibility.
The Premier of the Gauteng Province in his state of the province address yesterday outlined the geographical redefinition of the province as informed by the envisaged radical socio-economic transformation programmes that will ensure that all citizens of the Gauteng City Region become active economic participants.
What does this imply to you as the youth of the Gauteng City Region? Programme Director before these young men and women begin to enter into a silent dialogue with themselves in their attempt answer this question in their hearts, allow me to re- iterate the five development corridors as articulated by the Premier in his state of the province address.
The five development corridors are as follows:
- The city of Johannesburg as the hub of finance, services , ICT and pharmaceutical industries.
- Ekurhuleni Metro as the hub of manufacturing , logistics and transport industries- Aero-tropolis
- Tshwane as the nation’s administrative capital city and the hub of the automotive sector , research, development , innovation and the knowledge- based economy
- West rand district – where there will be a creation of new industries, new economic modes and new cities.
- Sedibeng District - where there will be a creation of new industries, new economic nodes and cities
The Premier’s redefinition means that as a youth, you should re-align your aspirations to suit the demands of today and future as alluded to in the state of the province address. Ladies and gentlemen, the state of the province address has emphasised infrastructural development, IT among the many.
Therefore, as we engage on issues that relate to your safety as the youth of Gauteng, let us engage and explore opportunities that have been presented by the Premier as solution to youth safety. Security and Safety cannot be divorced.
Programme Director. Job security as a solution has already been presented through the most recent state of the province address which took place two days ago. Lets us tease out career opportunities as a solution to crime and adapt accordingly.
This sate of the province by the premier of Gauteng Mr David Makhura has created ample space for artisans and IT specialists. As the youth of Gauteng, you have an obligation to secure your safety by being gainfully engaged in self propelling and self improving platforms. Job security through context driven career choices should be the order of the day as opposed to qualifications are not relevant to the current context. There has to be a paradigm shift.
Programme Director, safety is our heartbeat as the department of community safety. For us as a department to be seen to be effective, it is when all citizens are and feel safe. I therefore appeal to you to make Gauteng a safe province. Safety starts with you. Safety starts with me. Safety is a collective responsibility.
Programme director, it is a fact that the majority of the crimes committed can be attributed to the youth. The current statistics attest to this shocking revelation. We have to do something as a collective to salvage our youth and chart a way-forward.
This is because youth safety is the future because as the youth, you are the pace setters of the future. You are the pulse of the nation. Our youth have to be socialised into a particular community of practice. That is a community that has a value system which embraces self respect, respect for others, human dignity, honesty, accountability, tenacity, resilience, discipline, the list is endless.
In conclusion, Programme Director I believe that this Gauteng Youth Safety Summit should provide solutions and I hope that as we listen and interact today, we shall be able to come out victors with a clearly defined strategy which will be translated to an operational plan for our youth to become active economic participants in the five development corridors of the Gauteng City Region.
Thank you.
