15 Jun 2014

Former South African vice president, Mr Kgalema Motlanthe says rebirth of the African continent should be driven by the exuberance of its youth.

Giving a keynote address at Sir Ketumile Masire Foundation dinner on June 13, he said the foundation’s focus on issues pertaining to youth in the context of peace and governance therefore filled a strategic void.

He said the concepts of peace and good governance were not just important for Africa’s development but indispensable. “This is all the more reason the youth’s location in the sphere of peace building and contributing to good governance is of exceptional importance,” he said.

Mr Motlanthe said if young people were to make a difference in running public affairs in a clean and effective way, their levels of education would need to be commensurate with the demands of the task.

In this regard, he said the youth of Africa needed to receive good, quality education in areas such as public administration to equip themselves with the necessary intellectual tools to measure up to the demands of running modern public institutions and systems to achieve set objectives.

Mr Motlanthe further said civic education was critical in the formation of human personality at school level and that the same logic held in cultivating the minds of the youth. He said the youth as future administrative and political leaders should respect values of democracy and good governance.

“It has to be a way of life and an outlook on life in Africa among our young that to be put in a position of public responsibility such as public administration is not just an honour, but a huge responsibility on the part of the incumbent,” he said.

He said the theme of Peace and Good Governance with Focus on the Youth was equaled by the need for a swift and decisive action to bring about a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist, just and prosperous African continent.

Mr Motlanthe said Africa had borne and continues to bear the brunt of civil wars, undemocratic removal of legitimate governments, poverty, politically motivated ethnic strife, religious conflict, diseases and ignorance, among a plethora of other socio-political pathologies blighting its state of existence.

“As much as there are African nations breaking new ground in terms of clean and effective public administration, Africa remains a metaphor for all that is politically undesirable in a modern nation-state,” he said.

Mr Game Bantsi popularly known as Zeus, who spoke on behalf of the youth appealed to peers to protect and develop the legacy they inherited from the founding leadership.

He said leadership was not about earning a title and position, but should be understood as qualities that one develops internally that becomes a guiding line for the individual. He said there was need to leverage the education, connectivity and access to information and have a transformed face in governance that involves young people.

“To you our current generation of leaders, I say believe in us, nurture us, empower us in a meaningful and impactful manner, give us the opportunity to lead and be responsible before deeming us irresponsible,” he said. ENDS