CoJ hosts summit to empower youth
City of Johannesburg’s recent youth summit at Marlboro Community Hall is lauded for giving youth valuable information; however, young people feel that its impact is limited because they were not presented with open vacancies.
In a bid to address young people’s concerns about development programmes that do not yield meaningful results, the City of Johannesburg hosted a youth empowerment summit at Marlboro Community Hall on June 13.
It brought organisations together to empower young people with the information they need to change their lives.
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During the event, a panel of experts, including entrepreneurs and motivational speakers, held a robust discussion about unemployment, mentorship, and entrepreneurship. One of the panellists from Safe-Hub, Johannes Mpho Lekalakala said young people could use AI to tackle unemployment. “Do not just look at AI as the enemy; it does not destroy jobs. AI is here to help you find work.”
For fellow panellist Thabo Phala, a representative of Stretch Education SA, the summit was about sharing ways young people can help each other. He emphasised the power of peer-to-peer mentorship, noting that it allowed young people to share spaces with others who share the same purpose.
This was reiterated by Thabo ERA IT solutions founder, Thabo Langalebalela. “Sometimes what you know is not known but others. So, it is imperative to share,” he stated. Langalebalela highlighted the importance of the summit, stressing that if every municipality could host similar summits, societies would grow. However, some young people felt different.
An attendee, Karabo Khalo expressed concerns about such programmes’ limited impact. “The information was valuable, but they just gave information, not opportunities. They tell you what they do, and require you to sign registers, but after that, they do not call. So, if they can try to call us when there are job opportunities, that would empower the youth.”
His views were shared by another attendee, Choeu Morris, who noted that the summit was the third event he had attended. He said although it was good, there were no efforts made to present them with real job opportunities.
CoJ’s Boitumelo Mabena said the event was not the end but the beginning. “We want the youth to be better and developed.”
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