13 Oct 2016

Member of Parliament for Bobonong, Mr Shaw Kgathi, has challenged youth in the constituency to form a youth forum to voice their concerns.

Mr Kgathi said during a youth meeting at Bobonong community hall that the forum would help them identify their concerns as a group.

The forum, he stated, would assist youth engage and review programmes and schemes as well as submit to relevant ministries.

Mr Kgathi, also Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, volunteered to be a patron of the forum if formed and that officials of the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development should be ex-officio members.

He said the forum should be solely for youth empowerment and developmental issues and not abused for political and religious issues.

On other issues, he said government was committed to youth empowerment, hence formation of ministry responsible for youth because 60 per cent of the country’s population was made of youth.

Mr Kgathi said despite the large population of youth, there was still a concern because youth did not participate in activities such as attending kgotla meetings, national events and some failed to utilise government programmes.

The MP said youth had left kgotla meetings and national events for elderly people although they were the ones which the country’s future relied on.

Mr Kgathi implored youth to exploit their God given talents to pursue their dreams and emphasised that they should fully utilise the YDF programme.

He said God had given everyone talent that they should use and youth should identify themselves and should pursue their talents and discover themselves who they were.

He said many people misplace their talents and should focus on things that they have potential to perform better.

He said many people failed to use schemes because they become impatient on the way and abandon their plans.

The legislator further added that youth should be expansive in choosing projects and come with unique sustainable projects not same projects in the line of saloon, tuck shops, catering, and tents hire which made the YDF programme reach saturation.

Concerning Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, the MP challenged them to expand their publicity and advertise their programmes at strategic areas to grab youth’s attention.

Mr Kgathi said Bobirwa has a lot of artists who were not known and promised to sponsor a festival for the purpose of advertising local talent this year.

He also contributed funds to the Borotsi Athletics Club which is slated to participate in marathon race over the weekend in North East.

However, attendants expressed concern about lack of effective communication and publicity on the part of the ministry stating that opening dates for YDF forms collection and orientation were not communicated to them effectively. ENDS