Stage set for Tirelo Sechaba revival
Gothataone Moeng | Wednesday March 26, 2014 15:59
The programme, which will cost government, P178 million in its first year, has been reintroduced to engage unemployed youth in meaningful community development projects and give them work experience.
The Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Shaw Kgathi told Parliament yesterday that the programme will be run under the Youth Empowerment Scheme, which includes the Youth Development Fund (YDF) and the National Internship Programme.
Kgathi said in Parliament this week that his ministry has established a programme management office to ensure the effective implementation of the BNSP. Advertorials placed in local print media about the programme indicate that the BNSP seeks to intervene and reverse challenges faced by youth.
This will be done in light of the national challenge of youth engagement in the face of growing unemployment, poverty, disease and social ills. “BNSP takes a multi-sectoral and integrated approach to creating opportunities for unengaged youth to gain skills and experience, while simultaneously contributing to the development of their communities,” the adverts say. The participants, who must be between the ages of 20 and 30, will be posted as assistants under various programmes including agricultural extension, health education, community policing, poverty eradication, civil and national registration campaigns, facility maintenance, voter education, road maintenance and disaster management.
Information from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture (MYSC) shows that although 32,000 people applied for the programme, only 15,000 were admitted.
However, MPs were this week still condemning the initiative, saying it is another temporary solution to youth unemployment. Kentse Rammidi of Kanye North urged Kgathi to meet the Ministers of Trade and Industry; and Labour and Home Affairs to come up with better alternatives. “I don’t know what you want to achieve with Tirelo Sechaba,” Rammidi told Kgathi.
He said young people will be idling wherever they are posted while some will be reduced to making photocopies. Francistown South MP, Wynter Mmolotsi decried that the ministry seems to have a lot of temporary measures that do not realistically tackle youth unemployment. He said the initiatives are just meant to keep young people busy.