Pretoria – Thirty-eight South Africans have completed training in specialised conflict resolution, negotiation and mediation from world experts as part of the Capacity Building and Training Programme in Mediation for South African Youth.
“Accordingly, the main motive for this capacity building programme is to capacitate our youth with conflict resolution, mediation and negotiation skills so that they can contribute to the African Union call of silencing the guns by 2020,” Deputy Minister in the Presidency responsible for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Youth Development and Administration, Buti Manamela, said on Friday.
As part of the Youth Month celebrations, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) in partnership with the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) and the South African Youth Council (SAYC) hosted a training programme from 15 to 26 June 2015.
The programme, which formed part of government’s national Youth Month calendar, is designed to promote national peace, stability and nation-building.
The programme also aims to create a caliber of youth who are trained and ready to be deployed on all missions of national and international conflict resolution.
“This is part of the effort to ensure that Africa emerges as a peaceful and secure continent by 2063.
“Our continent does not need young people who can operate an AK-47,” Deputy Minister Manamela said.
He said the continent needs young people who can mediate, negotiate and find peaceful resolutions to the intractable conflicts.
“Imagine the possibilities of a peaceful, united, prosperous Africa. Now imagine your role in bringing this to reality,” Deputy Minister Manamela said.
The young people who participated in the training were selected from civil society and the Security Cluster.
The training programme covered amongst others the context, history and analysis of the changing nature of conflict as well as leadership and the role of youth in changing societies.
Other subjects covered in the training included mediation structures at national, regional and international levels as well as international negotiations and mediation strategy, planning and process design.
“I hope that DIRCO, SAYC and the NYDA will make this an annual training programme so that many more young South Africans can benefit,” he said. - SAnews.gov.za
