FS youth parliament sits

Parliament in progress … Free State junior parliamentarians seen debating issues affecting the youths

Provincial youth wings of the prominent political organisations on Thursday gathered at the Free State legislature’s Fourth Raadsaal in Bloemfontein to discuss pertinent issues affecting the youth.
The sitting, which resembled a normal provincial parliament sitting in the legislature’s debating chamber, formed part of the Youth Month celebrations which take place annually in June.

All the responsibilities within the Legislature – from the Speaker, members to the Sergeant in Arms – were handed over to the young people, with the appointed Speaker being Theodore Leeuw.
The sitting was organised by the provincial legislature, in conjunction with political parties represented in the legislature, namely the ANC, DA, EFF and FF+ and other organisations such as the South African Student’s congress (Sasco), the cultural and Creative Industry of South Africa. Representatives were mostly from the Mangaung region.

Various socio-economic issues were debated at length by the young politicians including youth unemployment and job creation. Other challenges that were highlighted included substance and alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancies, crime and corruption in the public sector.

Although the members of the youth parliament identified the various challenges, several positive aspects of widespread youth developments were duly acknowledged.
ANC representative Pule Maikhulo debunked suggestions by the opposition that the youth were at the bottom of the government’s list of priorities. He cited a handful of initiatives the government undertook for the purpose of developing young people.

He said: “Today, 21 years after the youth of 1976 marched for a better education to all, there is equal access to not only education, but health and other services rendered by the democratic government.

People with disabilities representative, Mohau Nhlapo, a partially blind individual who is suffering from albinism highlighted that people with disabilities have been well integrated into broader society with able people since the fall of the apartheid regime in 1994.

He said disabled people now have equal access to job opportunities and have proved competent.

“Today we have disabled director generals, as well as government ministers in a true sign that a disability is not an inability and true to the word that ‘nothing about us without u’,” Nhlapo said, whilst revealing that the government had recently organised a visit for them to Japan, where the natives showed them how they implemented their disabled empowerment policies.
This was done with the aim of strengthening the management of disabled people affairs back here in South Africa.

To some extent, the sitting disturbingly mimicked the shenanigans of national parliament sitting – with constant disruptive ‘points of order’ and objections being raised by members of the opposition parties. Leeuw reprimanded the members accordingly and ensured the session went smoothly.

The sitting was attended by member of speaker of the Free State legislature Mamiki Qabathe, MPL’s Thabo Meeko, Oupa Khoabane, Neels Van Rooyen, as well as members of the public filling the gallery.