Monday, 19 June 2017
Thursday, 1 June 2017
Officially Youth Month: But, what's new?
What's new? Nothing much, except the ever increasing youth unemployment that continues to increase and now at 65%. On the day, 16 June, like in most recent years, it is most likely to be marked with long political gatherings and speeches; but very little tangibles after that, isn't that the story of every youth month?
More worrying is that even the little few who once had an entrepreneurial drive are becoming hopeless. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor statistics reveal that in 2015 about 45.4% of working age adults in South Africa, believed they had the knowledge and skills to start their own firms. In 2016, that fell to 37.9%.
More and more questions continue to rise in our minds as youth. Questions such as, what about the school leavers? Is basic education equipping them enough with skills to survive should they not make it to grade 12? Tertiary fees keep increasing, whilst many most house hold income for the working class is increasing at a very slow rate, with an Overall average salary increased 35% between 2003 and 2012, to R7,443 (median: R3.897), how will the majority of these young ppl access tertiary education? Not forgetting to mention that there's the reality of very low income earners such as domestic workers that the minimum wage is expected to be at R1,562.21. Mong at these are breadwinners in most homes, expected to play a key role in furthering their children education.
The future therefore seems to be pre defined, that only a handful of South African youth, will access the opportunities available, and many will fall back into the cracks of poverty. However, we remain an optimistic youth, we are hopeful to hear what this year's youth day celebrations and speeches will bring.
June month is dubbed youth month in South Africa, since the morning of June 16, 1976, where thousands of students from the African township of Soweto, outside Johannesburg, gathered at their schools to participate in a student-organized protest demonstration. Many of them carried signs that read, 'Down with Afrikaans' and 'Bantu Education – to Hell with it'. That day, two students, Hastings Ndlovu and Hector Pieterson, died from police gunfire; hundreds more sustained injuries during the subsequent chaos that engulfed Soweto.
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