CAPE TOWN, June 16 (ANA) – The South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) on Friday called on young people to draw inspiration from the 1976 generation and to “step up to contribute solutions to the current challenges facing South Africa”.
Sanco spokesperson, Jabu Mahlangu, said: “Our youth must resist the temptation to be captured and swayed by crass materialism that will compromise the historic role they have to play to sustain our freedom, democracy and advance development. They have to choose their role models carefully.”
Mahlangu said that youth unemployment was a ticking time bomb that had to be defused through vocational training and skills development programmes.
“We cannot afford to lose this generation to hopelessness, drugs and gangsterism when opportunities that the class of 1976 did not imagine possible are available,” he emphasised.
He stressed that SMME development supported by mentoring programmes would boost job creation, support infrastructure development and economic growth, as well as give hope to young people that were disillusioned.
Mahlangu urged the private sector to play its part in youth development.
“Social grants are not a sustainable solution. The economic participation of our youth is critical to address the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality,” he said.
– African News Agency (ANA)
