By Lilitha Minnaar, Centre of Science and Technology
Our children are our greatest treasure. They are our future. Those who abuse them tear at the fabric of our society and weaken our nation. Those were the words of the phenomenon Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.
But it seems the youth are shifting away from Mandela’s vision about them and because they are the fabric of the society; they let sorrows and difficulties tear them apart and as a result the nation is weakened.
Now, what are the problems faced by the youth? What are my aspirations for them? Troubled, weakened, depressed and hopeless are the words that can be used to describe the youth of our rainbow nation.
Their lives have no direction because of the wind that is disrupting them.
Each and every day they live to survive they are trying to make ends meet. They are not living but existing; how? They have no aspirations, no goals and the government is not doing enough to create jobs for them.
In townships there are no recreation facilities, there are no projects to empower the youth, there are no skills projects; also there are no jobs for them. The youth are not only physically troubled, but also mentally they are not okay but nobody cares.
Let me give you an insight into what is happening to our youth; they abuse drugs to feel good, they abuse alcohol to escape from reality. Would someone mentally stable do that?
Some do not run to drugs and alcohol but they self-harm because some are unemployed, some cannot find schools for tertiary education, and some were raped and abused.
Do we expect them to be mentally stable after all the troubles and pain they had to bear. At the end of the day, nobody cares.
My future aspiration for the youth is to have more recreational facilities in our townships, more alcohol and drug abuse awareness, rehabilitation facilities and mental health awareness in townships.
The government must work on improving the quality of education it provides.
I also hope that the political leaders will give the youth a platform to showcase their leadership skills and let them carry the ropes to the future of South Africa.
At the end of every tunnel, there is light and it comes in many forms. May all the troubled youth find peace and those depressed be freed from the ties of depression. Generation Z all the way.
* Lilitha Minnaar, Centre of Science and Technology.
* To Celebrate Youth Month, the Cape Argus invited youngsters in Cape Town to submit essays to the newspaper about their dreams, their vision and their hopes for the future.
After barely a trickle of submissions, our inboxes were filled once the word spread on social media. We have had youngsters from across the Cape Metropole sharing with us what they expect of those in charge and how they want to change things for the better in their communities.
The essays on this page have been chosen as the best, and each writer will receive a tablet computer courtesy of Double “O”.
Thank you to everyone who wrote to us. We encourage you to remain active, whether through the written word or participating in activities in your communities.
– The Cape Argus team