November 21, 2005
By Tshepiso Seopa
THE challenges young people face are getting the attention they deserve from the City, which is prioritising youth concerns in its Youth Development Strategy now being drawn up.
These challenges are unemployment, community safety, skills development, evaluation of sector education and training authorities (Setas) and promoting arts and culture at community level.
The department of social services will co-ordinate and monitor the development of the strategy, which will cover a five-year period.
It will set up guidelines and plans for development programmes aimed at Joburg's youngsters, and give them a role in the City's decision-making processes.
As part of its work, the department held a workshop on Saturday, 11 November, in Braamfontein, to highlight the strategy's implementation plans and give feedback from the youth dialogues that were held in all 11 regions of the city.
The dialogues, facilitated by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa), were the first steps used to finding out what young people were most worried about. The second phase of the programme will deal with issues raised during these discussions.
Programmes will be implemented for young people to tackle issues like job creation, skills development and education, HIV/Aids and substance abuse.
These will then be followed by feedback sessions.
Youth dialogues
Several issues were raised at the youth dialogues, like unemployment, skills development programmes, healthcare, poverty alleviation, education and a lack of infrastructure.
Papiso Thiledi, from Region 6, said, "The Youth Development Strategy should emphasise that a certain percentage of a company or consortium be comprised of youth, and youth should be taken into account when awarding tenders."
Oupa Molefe, from Region 3, said, "The current development programmes initiated by the state are not enough because even after a person has been on a learnersip programme, they are still unemployable because of a lack of sufficient skills."
The City was urged to prioritise the accessibility of anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs to young people, said Region 1's Mathapelo Koloti. "I have seen some people die from Aids-related diseases prematurely and I believe that if they had been on ARVs they could have lived longer."
Matshidiso Modise, from Region 6, spoke of changing child support grants from cash to vouchers. "I think the system that is currently being used should be changed because I have seen a lot of people who abuse the grants. They use the grants for their own selfish needs and not for the right beneficiaries."
Diepsloot's Vusimusi Mhlongo said the City should take into account people who could not complete school and as a result were viewed as illiterate.
"Some of us did not finish school and we are not employable. Even when they are giving people learnerships they do not care about us. Why should entry requirements for learnerships be a senior certificate only? Should we resort to crime [before we are] considered?"
Tshepo Bogatsu said many people could not get information as they had no access to the internet. "Information is on the internet and because we do not have computers at home we do not have information - and as a result we are left out."
Commissions
According to the Idasa report on the youth dialogues, participants were divided into four commissions, focusing on the four main pillars of the Developmental Strategic Document, which was drawn up by the social services department. These were:
Representation, participation, co-ordination and structure: this commission looked at ways the City could bring on board young people and other relevant stakeholders in drawing up youth development programmes.
Integrated youth development: this commission discussed the documents its Youth Development Strategy should take into account.
The development policy should be based on several documents, including the Constitution, Mayoral Priorities, Integrated Development Plan, Regional Service Delivery Plan, Joburg 2030 Strategy, 2004 Imbizo Youth Issues, Human Development Strategy, National Crime Prevention Strategy, Johannesburg City Safety Strategy and the Municipal Systems Act.
Socio-economic challenges: this commission explored the socio-economic challenges young people faced. These include unemployment, poverty, a lack of skills, HIV and Aids, crime, violence and substance abuse.
Intervention
Intervention programmes: this commission focused on intervention programmes to deal with the identified socio-economic challenges and youngsters' economic limitations.
The proposed intervention programmes are:
Job creation - the youngsters said there should be a quota system compelling the private sector to hire unemployed youth. The system should also be taken into consideration when awarding tenders.
Poverty alleviation - youth should be helped to start self-help schemes.
Skills development - state-run skills development programmes are not enough and youngsters who have attended government training should be placed in jobs.
Community safety and crime prevention - a scheme should be introduced whereby no young people out of school should have nothing to do. A conscription type of service with the South African National Defence Force was suggested.
Recreation - recreation centres should be reintroduced and made a safe place for youngsters to develop themselves through recreation.
Arts, culture and heritage - these should be promoted at local level because they have an ability to create jobs and entrepreneurs.
Other intervention programmes should look at promoting good health, good governance and social responsibility.
Permission to use web site material
Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as:
- Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website
(www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency
(www.joburg.org.za)";
- If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original
article on this website;
- The name of the article's author is acknowledged;
-
The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill
in this brief online form).
Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 |
