Today, all over South Africa the youth celebrated Youth Day. I don’t think celebrate is the right word to use in this instance though. Remembrance, yes! Commemorate, yes! Celebrate? Definite no. I don’t think today’s youth have anything to celebrate. With the unemployment rate for South Africans between the ages of 25 and 35 at an all-time high of 48%, what are we still celebrating?

I mean, by this statistics it is clear that the youth are unemployed. In fact, I read somewhere that about 8 million young South Africans are without jobs. It is no surprise then that South Africa is ranked third in the world – after Greece and Spain – when it comes to unemployment stats.

So, really what are we celebrating here? Is it not clear that for us, young South Africans, there’s nothing to celebrate 39 years after ’76? Even the fashion (or whatever it is!) of wearing school uniforms to commemorate the youth of ’76 is irrelevant now. It’s lost its symbolic meaning because we end up drinking anyways.

But it’s at this point whereby we, the South African youth, need to think about how we can help Africa progress. It’s not enough for us to just live and not be remembered for any other thing then the fact that we were born after apartheid. Born-frees?

I’ve never really read Frantz Fanon’s books but I know he said something about discovering a mission fulfilling or betraying it. What is our cause then? Our mission?

What is our cause? Is it to drink ourselves into a stupor? Is it to smoke dangerous drugs such as nyaope and tik? Is it to be statistics of rife unemployment in our communities? Or, maybe, it is to spend our parents’ money recklessly just to fit in with crowds of stylish skhothanes? Bcoz these are the things we will be remembered for if things don’t change, if we don’t change.

Of course, there are individuals who’ve given us hope that our generation is not doomed. I mean, yes, there are those who pursue a positive change for South Africa. Surely, they will be remembered for doing positive things…but what about us as a collective?

Us as a generation, what will be remembered for?

I think it’s about time we start thinking of that – our responsibility as today’s youth. The future. What kind of South Africa do we want our kids to inherit? What positive changes will we have effected? Our parents brought apartheid and colonial rule to its knees. It can’t be right to just live and have no positive impact on the people around you.

Who said: “…ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”? That’s the question we need to be asking ourselves. The government is doing its best to provide the youth with education, the least we can do is go to school and take the chances that we are given so that we can help our country to progress.

Remember, the future of this country is in the hands of the youth, and to be honest the future is not safe in the hands of a youth that does not value education but celebrating even where there is nothing to celebrate.

The past is important. We must remember it lest we forget it…but to celebrate Youth Day? No, we have absolutely nothing to celebrate!

Dish it: What can you do for your country?