Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Steve Letsike has encouraged young people to view setbacks as interruptions rather than defining moments in their lives.
Addressing young people at the launch of 2026 Take 2 initiative, held in Orange Farm on Tuesday, Letsike said young people should not be defined by difficult circumstances, but should have opportunities to change direction, pursue their ambitions, and build better futures.
Letsike encouraged young people to feel empowered to seek healthcare without fear of judgement, ask questions, pursue new opportunities, and change direction.
However, Letsike warned against placing the responsibility for overcoming adversity entirely on young people’s shoulders, while failing to address the structural challenges that limit their opportunities.
“It is too easy for society to tell young people to be resilient while leaving unchanged the conditions that require extraordinary resilience simply to survive,” the Deputy Minister said.
She called for health services that respect young people, education systems that provide continued support, safer communities where girls can move without fear, economic opportunities that are accessible to all, and public institutions capable of meeting young people where they are.
The Deputy Minister said the broader objective of Take 2 should help build a society in which no young person is permanently disadvantaged by one interruption, difficult season, mistake, act of violence committed against them, and lost opportunity, or circumstances into which they were born.
“Let us fight option poverty by expanding the number of futures that young people can realistically choose.”
Letsike emphasised that the success of an equal society should be measured not only by whether young people received an initial opportunity, but also by whether they had a way back when life interrupted their progress.
“The measure of an equal society is not only whether everyone is offered a first opportunity. It is also whether, when life knocks someone off course, everyone still has a road back,” the Deputy Minister said. – SAnews.gov.za
