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Youth urged to lead campaign to end killing of women, children

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Government has urged young people to be at the forefront of campaigns to curb the killing of women and children.

Recently, the country has seen a spike in the brutal killing of women – in many cases by their partners. Last week, Nomsa Maduna of Mofolo in Soweto was pulled out of a taxi by her former boyfriend who then shot and killed her.

This followed the killing of 33-year-old Mosidi Kopanye of Mabopane north of Pretoria, also allegedly killed by her partner.

Launching the 2018 National Youth Month in Soweto on Monday, government said young people should volunteer to lead the campaign to end the scourge.

 

The 2018 National Youth Month has been launched in Soweto with the theme: Live the Legacy – Towards a socio-economically empowered youth.

And with 60 percent of young people unemployed, Minister in the Presidency,  Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, says to give Youth Month and June 16 more meaning the National Youth Development Agency needs to gather inputs from young people across the country on how they want the day to be commemorated and how they can benefit from activities of the day. She also condemned the persistent abuse of women and children.

Dr Dlamini-Zuma says “Before I conclude I want to speak about something that makes me sad about young people. You must be at the forefront at this campaign against the scourge of the killing of young women and children. Why do you find so easy to kill one another. I think at this launch of this Youth Month we must all commit ourselves to be volunteers against this scourge of killing women and children. Tata Mandela and Mam Sisulu they cannot be happy with what they see.”

The Chairperson of the National Youth Development Agency, Sifiso Mtsweni, on the other hand, said to ensure the creation of jobs for young people, government should pass a law that scraps experience as a requirement for all entry level jobs like secretaries.

Chairperson of the NYDA, Sifiso Mtsweni says, “A company wants an administrator. You are told that you need five years experience to be a receptionist. You don’t need experience to answer phones, we have been answering phones for the rest of lives. A company wants a driver, you are told you need five years experience to be a driver. No, in fact you need a drivers license to be a driver. So we will continue to say that we call for the scrapping of experience, especially for the entry level jobs and especially for unemployed graduates.”

His deputy, Bavelile Hongwa, took a swipe at some government departments, saying they should come up with programmes that create jobs for young people instead of calling endless summits.

Hlongwa says, “We don’t want youth summits we have done that we want programmes. If they are confused about the types of programmes that they can run to assist young people they must come to us. In fact if next year we experience invites again at the rate we are experiencing them now for summits we are going to reject all of them we are not going to them because people just want to tick a box and say we have had a youth development programme we want serious programmes that create jobs.”

And in line with living the legacy of former president Nelson Mandela, Mam Albertina Sisulu and the many other heroes of the June 16 generation, Oupa Moloto of the June 16 Foundation encouraged young people to treasure the infrastructure built for them by the democratic government.

June 16 Foundation’s Oupa Moloto says “When people are in the struggle today they burn schools and other institutions of learning and it hurts us those who were involved in the 1976 struggle. By burning a school you are not going to be included in the history books. I am saying to young people learn, look at the characters of those who have passed how they have handled themselves.”

This year’s commemoration of the June 16 Soweto Uprisings will be held at the Orlando Stadium here in Soweto.

 

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