Of Future Visions and Youth Dearth
To read from a national newspaper that the Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs, David ‘Cruiser’ Ngcamphalala, failed dismally to explain what programs his ministry has to address the growing scourge of drug abuse amongst young people was disappointing. But certainly not surprising. At all.
To read of such unapologetic incompetence five days before the continent collectively commemorated Africa Youth Day on November 1 was discouraging and sad, but again, not surprising.
I mean, we are in the year of our Lord two thousand and fifteen, where globally, most cabinet ministers and politicians (un)worthy of our tax are using all available communication platforms to reach their target audiences with relevant messaging in real time – twitter, Facebook, Instagram, flicker etc. Yet our beloved Cruiser has absolutely zilch information to share about existing interventions for this significant segment of the population, not even to share with his own colleagues in parliament.
The question posed by Senator Prince Kusa to Cruiser was pretty straight-forward: “How do you address YOUTH drug abuse?” The best response the youth minister could come up with was that his ministry depended LARGELY on EVENTS organized by the POLICE and the ministry of health to sensitize the youth about substance abuse.
There’s nothing wrong with collaborating with other departments and ministries in addressing any societal social ill. But there’s everything wrong if the minister responsible has absolutely no clue of what his peers in these other ministries are feeding to his constituency, and in what format they are doing so.
Just awareness events Mr. Youth Minister? And the content of these events? I can definitely picture an awareness event reaching an in-school youth who may or may not have started using narcotics. I cannot however, picture how an awareness event would reach an out-of-school using youngster. Is creating awareness alone even enough to address this growing problem?
Anyway, today I will not delve too much in the nuances of the minister’s vague response on the subject. Because if I was Cruiser, in Swaziland, in 2015, I too would be as nonchalant and carelessly disengaged from the people that I’m supposed to service [underline ‘supposed to’]. After all, this is the only quality of leadership that the status quo can produce. We all know that the reality is that cabinet serves first and mostly those in authority and not the nation.
This is what happens when the only spaces where young people are well organized, without supervision, is at a social level – at the pubs, church, entertainment festivals etc. and my favorite one of all -Facebook gossip pages.
If you want to understand what the youth of Swaziland are passionate about at seven years before the realization of our targets, dreams and aspirations as a nation, go to Facebook and witness for yourself, in real time, the responsiveness and high-paced level of interactive dialogue and confidence that our young people possess when it comes to talking about others and not themselves – often about the misfortunes and (predominantly sexual) delinquencies (perceived or real) of others.
If you want to see what our aspirant young people are pre-occupied with, go to the University of Swaziland (UNISWA) where you will find that they prefer to dedicate their energies to ensuring that they rather not be organized under a student body that will pursue the improvement of matters of interest to them and those that will come after them because they refuse to be led by mini-terrorists in the form of students affiliated to SWAYOCO - the youth wing of the banned People’s United Democratic Movement.
You would think it would be easy for our young people to draw lessons from recent developments in the student movement in neighboring South Africa. The South African students won part of their battle for a non-increment in tuition fees and later better working conditions and benefits for university contract staff- primarily because their Student Representative Councils (SRCs) are led by students who belong to youth branches of the various political groups, so their interests will always be pursued in a thought-through and structured manner.
This is why their #FeesMustFall campaign received visible global support and solidarity at different levels of society.
This lesson in standing up for humanity is coincidentally in line with the African Union’s 2015 Africa Youth Day theme: “African Year of Human Rights Towards Agenda 2063”. I think this is particularly important for the Swaziland youth because in 2015, the reality of the average young person who has successfully gone through high schooling is as follows:
And no, the Youth Minister cannot take all the flak for failing to save youth that aren’t rigorously trying to save themselves. As parents, aunts, older sisters etc., to these youngsters, we should realize that the state of our youth is a mirror reflection of what we have taught (or not taught) them, of how we have continued to influence them.
I would encourage you young person to introspect and commit to charting a better destiny for yourself even though the environment may not be conducive. You are after all, the generation that will see us to our much anticipated Vision 2022 and beyond. Save us from this dearth of a vibrant and participatory youth even as zamafogo (read: foreign) as this concept may seem to you.
To read of such unapologetic incompetence five days before the continent collectively commemorated Africa Youth Day on November 1 was discouraging and sad, but again, not surprising.
I mean, we are in the year of our Lord two thousand and fifteen, where globally, most cabinet ministers and politicians (un)worthy of our tax are using all available communication platforms to reach their target audiences with relevant messaging in real time – twitter, Facebook, Instagram, flicker etc. Yet our beloved Cruiser has absolutely zilch information to share about existing interventions for this significant segment of the population, not even to share with his own colleagues in parliament.
The question posed by Senator Prince Kusa to Cruiser was pretty straight-forward: “How do you address YOUTH drug abuse?” The best response the youth minister could come up with was that his ministry depended LARGELY on EVENTS organized by the POLICE and the ministry of health to sensitize the youth about substance abuse.
There’s nothing wrong with collaborating with other departments and ministries in addressing any societal social ill. But there’s everything wrong if the minister responsible has absolutely no clue of what his peers in these other ministries are feeding to his constituency, and in what format they are doing so.
Just awareness events Mr. Youth Minister? And the content of these events? I can definitely picture an awareness event reaching an in-school youth who may or may not have started using narcotics. I cannot however, picture how an awareness event would reach an out-of-school using youngster. Is creating awareness alone even enough to address this growing problem?
Disengaged
Anyway, today I will not delve too much in the nuances of the minister’s vague response on the subject. Because if I was Cruiser, in Swaziland, in 2015, I too would be as nonchalant and carelessly disengaged from the people that I’m supposed to service [underline ‘supposed to’]. After all, this is the only quality of leadership that the status quo can produce. We all know that the reality is that cabinet serves first and mostly those in authority and not the nation.
This is what happens when the only spaces where young people are well organized, without supervision, is at a social level – at the pubs, church, entertainment festivals etc. and my favorite one of all -Facebook gossip pages.
If you want to understand what the youth of Swaziland are passionate about at seven years before the realization of our targets, dreams and aspirations as a nation, go to Facebook and witness for yourself, in real time, the responsiveness and high-paced level of interactive dialogue and confidence that our young people possess when it comes to talking about others and not themselves – often about the misfortunes and (predominantly sexual) delinquencies (perceived or real) of others.
If you want to see what our aspirant young people are pre-occupied with, go to the University of Swaziland (UNISWA) where you will find that they prefer to dedicate their energies to ensuring that they rather not be organized under a student body that will pursue the improvement of matters of interest to them and those that will come after them because they refuse to be led by mini-terrorists in the form of students affiliated to SWAYOCO - the youth wing of the banned People’s United Democratic Movement.
You would think it would be easy for our young people to draw lessons from recent developments in the student movement in neighboring South Africa. The South African students won part of their battle for a non-increment in tuition fees and later better working conditions and benefits for university contract staff- primarily because their Student Representative Councils (SRCs) are led by students who belong to youth branches of the various political groups, so their interests will always be pursued in a thought-through and structured manner.
This is why their #FeesMustFall campaign received visible global support and solidarity at different levels of society.
Africa Youth Rise
This lesson in standing up for humanity is coincidentally in line with the African Union’s 2015 Africa Youth Day theme: “African Year of Human Rights Towards Agenda 2063”. I think this is particularly important for the Swaziland youth because in 2015, the reality of the average young person who has successfully gone through high schooling is as follows:
- They may not be able to get into university even if they qualify to be admitted to UNISWA because government is no longer providing scholarships the way it has in past years. This is the reality that many young people have lived in in recent years – working hard for all the academic merit and opportunity as a means to getting out of the cycle of poverty only to be stopped by this harsh reality.
- They may grow into depressed (and therefore unproductive and likely harmful) adults because if they do secure government-funded tuition, they are forced to study an academic course that they don’t particularly want to pursue as a result of government’s refusal to fund certain courses e.g. journalism. Imagine your destiny being decided for you in this manner?
- This depressed adult may start using and abusing alcohol and drugs with the money they get from their sorry job. This is when this young adult ends up with the police and ministry of health at the same time; with a criminal charge for whatever; the young adult may need to go through mental evaluation before their court trial. I feel you there Cruiser.
And no, the Youth Minister cannot take all the flak for failing to save youth that aren’t rigorously trying to save themselves. As parents, aunts, older sisters etc., to these youngsters, we should realize that the state of our youth is a mirror reflection of what we have taught (or not taught) them, of how we have continued to influence them.
I would encourage you young person to introspect and commit to charting a better destiny for yourself even though the environment may not be conducive. You are after all, the generation that will see us to our much anticipated Vision 2022 and beyond. Save us from this dearth of a vibrant and participatory youth even as zamafogo (read: foreign) as this concept may seem to you.
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