Deputy Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Zoleka Capa has encouraged young people to be at the forefront of eradicating poverty through agriculture.
She addressed the graduation ceremony of close to one hundred young people who took part in a youth skills development programme known as, the National Rural Youth Service Corps, in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape.
Capa says her department has partnered with institutions of learning such as the Tsolo Agricultural College and East Cape Midlands College to ensure that rural youth become job creators rather than job seekers.
“For us to be transformed, let us, those who can, instill it on young people. It will flow to all of us, irrespective of our age, young and old. What they need to do is to combine all what they have learnt and come up with Agri-tourism strategy that the government is ready to actually fund. They will be able to succeed.”
One of the graduates, Kamva Sishuba, also believes agriculture has the potential to ease unemployment amongst young people.
“We will use the skills that we acquired through the learnership program to develop our communities through skills development. So what I want to do to my community is to develop the skills of my community in four concepts, the concept of community building, the concept of patriotism (Ubuthandazwe), the concept of being against drug and substance abuse and the concept of work readiness. We should teach people to know that actually work has to be created by us as youth, other than looking for employment.”
