23 May 2019

Assistant minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Dikgang Makgalemele says youth empowerment is attainable with the involvement and commitment of all stakeholders. 

Speaking at a kgotla meeting in Nata on May 22, the assistant minister said considering the high speed of technological evolution, there is no excuse for the youth not to get access to information. 

He noted that government has come up with different empowerment programmes aimed at uplifting the lives of youth and it was up to them to take advantage of such. 

Mr Makgalemele said the government has made agreements with different sectors for affirmative action be applied in favour of the youth, hence they should seek out opportunities in different sectors. 

He stated that they were in the process of assessing youth groups that already exist to make a final decision on how best they could encourage and assist the youth to form cooperatives, since they had already grouped themselves through constituency tournaments. 

He said working in a group had a lot of benefits, adding that if they could do well in a group to succeed in the tournaments, it would be easy for them to form a cooperative, which would help create employment for them and others outside the group. 

“Success for every group working together depends on the commitment of the group members,” he stressed. 

Mr Makgalemele therefore urged them to do away with the spirit of individualism because having a common goal would help them go far with their businesses. 

Furthermore, the assistant minister noted that in some areas, there were concerns that young people no longer want to look for other opportunities other than relying on Ipelegeng. 

He thus proposed that they find a day every month to come together to motivate one another and share ideas on how best they could uplift themselves rather than waiting for Ipelegeng jobs. 

He urged those with successful businesses to engage those that are lagging behind to assist them. ENDS