19 Aug 2015

The youth have been encouraged to take advantage of exempted businesses to better their lives.

The Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, Mr Thapelo Olopeng said the exemption on youth businesses that cabinet approved recently comes into effect starting next month.

Officiating at the International Youth Day in Molepolole recently, Mr Olopeng said exemption on youth businesses relevant to PPADB would also be implemented in October.

He said the implementations came after thorough consultations with all relevant stakeholders.

Minister Olopeng stated that the ministry was working around the clock to put mechanisms in place to ensure that exemptions were implemented.

In support of youth businesses, he said consultations were underway with the private sector and parastatals to come up with special dispensation when procuring from them.

Through the Economic Diversification Drive, the ministry would ensure that government’s purchasing power was leveraged to stimulate local production and consumption by procuring from locally based manufacturers and service providers.

To further capacitate youth, Mr Olopeng said his ministry has established youth offices in all ministries and government departments. The offices, he said, were staffed with senior officials to push the national youth agenda by ensuring that they were in synch with youth development initiatives.

The initiative has helped the ministry to resolve various issues such as lack of operating spaces for youth businesses, youth unemployment, behaviour change and support for youth businesses, he said.

Furthermore, the minister said other initiatives they were embarking on include identification of land that might be developed and used for sporting activities at community level, with youth being the major beneficiaries.

Under arts and culture, the ministry is in the process of building a recording studio to record music by talented artists, to provide them with a head start in the industry, he added.

In addition, he said a second television channel was also on the cards to expose local talent. However, minister Olopeng urged the youth to desist from indulging in undesirable behaviours such as alcohol and substance abuse as well as irresponsible sexual behaviour.

Addressing the youth, Kgosi Kgari III expressed concern on the low turnout of youth at the event, urging them to take themselves seriously and attend youth activities to learn and share ideas on issues that concern them.

For his part, the Member of Parliament for Molepolole North, Mr Mohammed Khan thanked the ministry for bringing reforms for the benefit of the youth.

Mr Khan also emphasised that the government should have pride in the youth and discourage hopelessness that at times cripple youth. ENDS