City, province strengthen the hand of the youth
12 June 2017
The City of Joburg and other municipalities in Gauteng are in partnership with the Gauteng Provincial Government to host a 10-day youth exhibition at the Nasrec Expo Centre, outside Soweto.
The exhibition runs as part of a joint 2017 Youth Month Programme.
The expo – which focuses on jobs, careers and entrepreneurship opportunities for the youth – is in commemoration of the 16 June 1976 Soweto uprisings, which saw thousands of learners taking to streets in protest against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in black schools.
Hundreds of them were killed and much more maimed by gun-wielding apartheid police.
Today, 23 years after the advent of freedom and democracy, the country’s youth are facing different kinds of challenges – unemployment and a lack of economic opportunities – hence the decision by the provincial government and the 11 municipalities within its jurisdiction to host the jobs, careers and entrepreneurship opportunities expo every year.
Now in its third year, the 2017 exhibition started on Friday, 9 June and will run until Monday, 19 June.
The aim of the expo, according to the City of Joburg’s Karabo Semenya is to get the unemployed youth as well as primary and high school learners in one place and introduce them to various career opportunities they may wish to pursue.
The other Gauteng municipalities taking part in the expo are Ekurhuleni, Tshwane, Midvaal, Lesedi, Merafong, Sedibeng, Rand West City, Emfuleni, West Rand and Mogale City.
Each municipality will transport learners and youth to the venue and provide them with food parcels on a daily basis.
Daily activities the youth and learners will be exposed to include digital literacy workshops, mind refinery seminars, social cohesion games, exhibitions, inspired youth motivation workshops, movies and roundtable discussions.
Exhibitors include the Gauteng Film Commission; Johannesburg Film Commission; Johannesburg metro police department, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane; Johannesburg Emergency Management Services; South African Police Service; Gauteng Provincial Department of Sports; Gauteng Provincial Department of Transport; National Youth Development Agency; major banking institutions; and cellphone networks.
The expo will also be visited by officials of all the three spheres of government – local, provincial and national.
Some of the highlights of the Youth Month Programme include the OR Tambo Annual Memorial Lecture by former President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday, 15 June; a wreath-laying ceremony at the Hector Peterson Memorial Museum and a march on Friday, 16 June and the daily screening of the movie Kalushi.
Peterson was one of the first victims of the June 16, 1976, riots. The image of a dying 14-year-old Peterson, taken by photographer Sam Nzima was beamed across the world.
Kalushi Solomon Mahlangu was a student leader who was hanged by the apartheid government in 1979 for his involvement in the liberation struggle