Evidence wa ka Ngobeni
The South African Association of Youth Clubs (SAAYC), the national youth organisation that boasts four-million- strong membership, has refocused its course again – this time it is working on changing the attitudes of millions of young people and motivating them to take charge of their fortune.
“Gone are the times of destroying schools and campuses in the name of addressing problems,” says Mokaka Seshabela, who believes that 24 years after the 1976 Soweto massacre young people in South Africa have the capacity to address their problems through channels that have been shaped by the new democracy.
Seshabela condemns the use of outdated tactics in the new democratic dispensation, and cites the recent unrest at the University of Durban-Westville, which left one student dead, as a case in point.
“We have to avoid conflicts by teaching young people to learn to negotiate issues and to be able to challenge decisions taken by management without having to resort to some kind of violence,” Seshabela says, adding that his association has targeted student representative councils “for restoring a culture of learning among learners.
“Our focus has been leadership development. We help them with skills that will enable them to engage complex documents presented to them for discussions and to effectively participate in finding solutions for problems,” says Seshabela. “Instead of money being spent on repairing damaged property, it should be spent on building facilities.
“We all have to be committed if we are to tackle the task of improving the quality and lives of youth in South Africa,” he says, adding that dealing with the youth is a multifaceted challenge.
Seshabela should know. He’s been involved with the SAAYC for more than nine years, and is now its director.
Formed in the 1930s, the association initially organised itself along racial lines and focused on leisure and recreational activities. In 1985 its entire strategy changed when the sheer pressure of political and social upheaval caused the organisation to focus instead almost exclusively on courses and opportunities for leadership development and training.
With the exception of the Western Cape, there are clubs in every province,consisting of anything from 40 to 150 members. These clubs are affiliated to the association and pay an annual fee of R70, which entitles the 400 affiliates to use of the national infrastructure – library, training courses and membership camps.
The organisation hosts a bosberaad on a yearly basis.
For the June 16 commemoration the organisation will hold a week-long membership camp that includes inputs from various experts, discussing topics such as support for projects run by the organisation and its affiliates, community needs assessment and developing a problem statement in problem-solving exercises. Other topics, covered in the past few years, include conflict resolution and the importance of having priorities, as an individual, in life.
Seshabela is wary of youth activities that do not, in some way, develop their participants. Street parties and other purely leisure activities hold no attraction for this veteran of the youth club movement.
Seshabela is equally disparaging about parties on Youth Day. “We cannot celebrate on a day on which people died. Instead we must pay our respects to them through morally correct activities like church services. We must differentiate between the Freedom Day and Youth Day.”
Seshabla says that his association “wants to operate a comprehensive, dynamic and effective youth enhancement, advocacy and networking organisations working towards the improvement in the quality of life of the youth in South Africa”.
The association’s programmes include leadership development skills, training, policy and advocacy for youth work, and local and international exchange programmes.
Seshabela reckons that many young people are still on the margins of society – they are unemployed, have no skills or expertise, and no long-term goals.
Therefore, he says: “We have to use appropriate approaches to address these problems. There is a false notion that you can deal with young people as a special group. I call that fast-track development of youth.”
That perhaps explains the SAAYC’s approach to young people and youth work. For example, the SAAYC believes that “effective youth work is not only focused on desirable outcomes”, but rather it should concentrate on developing participatory processes.
Effective youth work, the association says, “is not trying to shape young people into marketable products, rather it allows young people to determine their future and destiny”.
To achieve this, the association believes that there must be a paradigm shift from the problem-focused mode to a holistic and healthy view, Seshabela says. He says programme leaders should not only help young people to beat the odds, but should also assist them to change their fate.
“This will help us to make long-term interventions – not short-term interventions, which are problematic – that will help instil dignity among our youth.”