Sending young men to the army could help end violent crime, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said over the weekend.
”The worrying trend whereby our youths are involved in the current spate of armed robberies and other related violent crimes that are ravaging our country could be reversed once they join the army,” he told a ceremony to commemorate King Mampuru of the Bapedi nation and King Nyabela of amaNdebele at Mamone village in Limpopo.
This was according to a statement issued by his department on Monday.
Quoting from the African National Congress’s (ANC) strategy and tactics document, Mdladlana continued: ”Conscripting our young people would not only help inculcate discipline but make them understand better the importance of defending our hard-earned liberation.”
It was at the same ceremony that Mdladlana invited the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) to watch a bull-slaughtering ceremony at his Eastern Cape village on Saturday.
The invitation follows senior ANC member Tony Yengeni reportedly spearing a bull before it was slaughtered at his parent’s home in Guguletu, sparking accusations of animal cruelty.
The SPCA has declined the invitation. — Sapa