Pretoria- All sectors of the society must join hands to mobilise necessary resources to accelerate the development that will divert young people from committing crime.
Any society ignoring its youth and children, does that at its own peril, and the South African government is committed to centralise young people in all facets of development , said Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha on Saturday.
This is because the ideals outlined in the National Development Plan can only be realised when significant investment is made collectively to break the vicious circle of poverty and underdevelopment, primarily targeting young people on whose shoulders lies South Africa’s future, the minister said.
“Young people are at the heart of the National Development Plan, the collective blueprint for a society where all South Africans will flourish.”
Minister Masutha was addressing over 2000 young people in Mangaung who attended the country's second Correctional Youth Summit.
The Youth Summit is a government initiative, aimed at exploring ways of keeping young people away from crime by inviting them to participate in various skills development programmes of correctional services.
The minister said the summit is not only convened to talk about challenges facing the youth.
“The summits are not just events where people come, listen and leave, but platforms for conversation on how practically young people could be exposed to technical, vocational and occupational skills development opportunities in Correctional Services, that were traditionally accessible to only offenders,” he said.
Mangaung Correctional Centre is currently houses 610 remand detainees of between 18 and 20 years of age, while those serving sentences within the same age group are 596.
Most of these young people are in custody for predominantly murder, rape, robbery and assault, which is one of the biggest concerns of the Department of Correctional Services.
Minister Masutha emphasised that more prevention measures are needed to create hope for a better life and prevent young people from turning correctional centres into their homes.
Also addressing the summit the Deputy Mayor of Mangaung Metro, Connie Rampai said the area has serious challenge of drug abuse and gangsterism.
She attributed these to lack of employment opportunities for young ex-offenders and a need for financial support of young entrepreneurs featured prominently during the dialogue
“We therefore appreciate that Correctional Services is coming up with such practical solutions and we hope that we can prevent our children from indulging in drugs,” said Rampai.
Minister Masutha undertook to engage other state agencies to ensure an integrated approach to dealing with a series of concerns young people raised during the summit. –SAnews.gov.za
