Limpopo Provincial Government launches Youth Month at Rotterdam

Rotterdam- MEC for Social Development Mme Nkakareng Ragoale has, on Wednesday 01 June 2022, launched the annual Youth Month to remember students who fought against an introduction of the Afrikaans language as a medium of instruction at black schools during the apartheid era, notably in 1976.

Following the advent of democracy in 1994, the new democratic government declared 16 June as National Youth Day and June as the Youth Month. The declaration honors the contribution of the youth in the struggle for the liberation of South Africa.
The official launch was held at Rotterdam multi-purpose stadium, Greater Letaba Local Municipality under the theme: Promoting sustainable livelihood and resilience of young people for a better tomorrow.

For Limpopo Province, the launch marked a series of activities that have been lined up by the provincial government to demonstrate their determination to empower the youth and to highlight the strides that have been made in the education sector since the infamous uprising as a build up to the June 16th commemorations.

Since 1994, the democratic government has made education, especially amongst the youth, easily accessible to all deserving students and Mme Ragoale has urged the young people to seize the opportunity of learning and see it as a tool to alleviate poverty.
Ragoale said the government understands that the youth of today are faced with unique challenges and diverse to those faced by their predecessors of 46 years ago, most notably the high unemployment rate.

Despite that, the MEC expressed her relief following the Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) recording a slight decrease in the youth unemployment rate. The Unemployment rate has decreased by 0.8% in the first term of 2022, which means that approximately 370 000 jobs were gained from the last term of 2021 to date.

As a tool to fight unemployment amongst the youth, Ragoale highlighted the introduction of the Limpopo Procurement Strategy which encourages all spheres of government to procure goods and services from young people in order to achieve government’s goal for youth empowerment.

“We will continue to be disturbed when young people, who are the future of our country are discouraged to be better South Africans. We will not rest until we safeguard the future of our economy by giving youth the opportunities in life that will make them succeed.” Ragoale stressed

Ragoale reassured the youth that government will continue to engage with the private sectors for more bankable projects aimed at decisively dealing with the scourge of unemployment and poverty affecting most young people.

By: Maano Nekhavhambe