Youth Activism works!

In three general elections the people of South Africa including the youth have been promised free education, jobs, free water and housing.

Election after election young people wake up to the same world, the election promises having not been fulfilled. The opposite is happening.

Evictions, water and electricity cut-offs are the daily experiences of the people. In education, school fees are rising and this widens the gap between the quality of education in township schools and those located in rich suburbs. It does not end there, the incidence of crime are growing in poor communities.

However, it is not all bad news because young people are beginning to take the initiative and to challenge a variety of government polices that undermine the quality of their lives by establishing various organisations. A list of some of the youth groups that the youth has developed in the past few years provides a picture of the range of activities in which young people are involved. This includes groups like the Youth for Work, the Community Networking Forum, the Masithandane Youth Development Club, the Uphuhliso Youth Activists, the School Youth Forum in Ceres, the Positive Youth, the Mitchell’s Plain Youth Forum, Youth Against Human Imbalances, Youth in Action, the Treatment Action Campaign Youth, the Youth for Future, the Masifunndisane Environmental Group and the Anti eviction Campaign)

The struggles of young people have an impact. In the case of townships around Cape Town where the townships are built on dusty fields with absolutely no green, youth are organising to green their communities by forcing local and provincial authorities to provide the necessary resources. It is for this reason that we should not give up our struggles for basic social services.

Zikhona madalase is young activist with the community network forum, Khayelitsha, cape Town.