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Youth Service, Protests, Women, Corruption…

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Youth Service, Protests, Women, Corruption… South Africa should consider introducing youth service programmes in order to enable young people to participate in the implementation of development projects, acquire skills and contribute to finding solutions to its socio-economic challenges. By participating in the national youth programmes, young people will be able to gain the much needed work experience required in order to gain full employment, start their own businesses and become active participants in the country’s mainstream economy. In this week’s edition of NGO Pulse, Yershen Pillay, the executive chairperson at the National Youth Development Agency, stresses the need for South Africa to invest in national youth service programmes in order to tackle the multitude of challenges facing young people today. Pillay believes that youth service is about ensuring that young people are at the forefront of promoting development in their communities and not as victims or burdens to society but rather as vital assets in promoting development and delivering services. “Many countries have made use of their national youth service programmes to build decent houses, fight HIV/AIDS and improve literacy,” he explains.
Click here to read the full article. http://www.ngopulse.org/article/youth-service-solution Last week, we published an article by Koketso Moeti, national coordinator at Local Government Action, focusing on municipalities, their performance and things that are required to enable them to become effective partners in service delivery.
http://www.ngopulse.org/article/good-municipalities-are-about-more-good-financial-management-0 This week, Moeti warns that the tendency of using the state apparatus such as the South African Police Service to detain activists and community members participating in service delivery protests instead of engaging them, will contribute to silencing many communities. Moeti argues that South Africans are facing an increasingly unresponsive and remote state, which refers specifically to the failure of formal participatory mechanisms to address the concerns of communities. She states that, “This frequently leads to communities becoming isolated and frustrated, and means that turning to informal and more direct means of engaging, namely; protests.” Click here to read the full article.
http://www.ngopulse.org/article/thembelihle-and-criminalisation-dissent Farai Morobane, the South African Institute for International Affairs – KAS Scholar, writes that even though strategies to increase women’s participation in politics have been advanced through various conventions, “…they are yet to prove effective in achieving gender parity in the highest government rankings.” Morobane is of the view that despite formal movements towards advocacy and implementation of mainstreaming policies, quota systems, gender networks, non-governmental organisations and decentralisation of power, there is still a gross minority of women occupying leadership roles in international politics. She maintains that: “It must be emphasised that the problem of legitimacy and implementation of the official spaces that women occupy in political leadership is a matter of global concern and is not endemic to the South or under-developed nations.” Click here to read the full article.
http://www.ngopulse.org/article/thembelihle-and-criminalisation-dissent Lastly, Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, has cautioned against what she terms a ‘monopoly of decision-making’ in society, arguing that if unchecked the practice would create favourable conditions for corruption to flourish. Addressing the 35th Crime Stoppers International Conference in Cape Town, Madonsela also called for the limiting of unfettered discretion and accountability. She noted that corruption is more of a societal problem than it is a government matter, adding that South Africa is not a corrupt country but a country with a problem of corruption. Click here for more information.
http://www.ngopulse.org/press-release/public-protector-warns-monopoly-decision-making Editor, editor@sangonet.org.za