Western Cape Youth Day Celebrations

The Western Cape Provincial Government and the City of Cape Town have joined forces in organizing Youth Day Celebrations for June 16 at the Bellville Velodrome. The theme which is in line with National's is Youth with a future - "Woza Tomorrow" and the sub-theme focusing on drugs - "Substance Abuse - Tik."

The organisers have been mandated to target approximately 5000 youths from across the Western Cape to attend this event. Buses will be arranged to transport them from various identified areas. This event aims to educate the youth about drug abuse while at the same time celebrating their role in socio-economic development of the country.

A video footage called "From yesterday to Today" will be played to illustrate how far the youth of this country have come.

Cyclists and four athletes will form a build up on the day of the event. The athletics will run from four different areas of Cape Town, one of the athletes is disabled. Cyclists will follow them all the way to the Velodrome, where they will converge for one of them to read messages of youth commitment in addressing the youth challenges.

As part of the programme for the day, a mini summit consisting of 200 youths from 6 regions of the province will be taking place at the VIP section of the hall. This summit will provide a platform to exchange ideas and discuss specific challenges pertinent to each region. This summit will be preceded by dialogue sessions at regional level one week prior to the event. Discussions will be focusing on challenges facing the youth and the identified topics are: Cultural Identity, Racism, Job Creation, Substance Abuse (video clips will be shown). A representative from the forum will give feedback of the summit from the main stage, after address by the Premier and Mayor.

Other activities to take place include extreme sport, cultural activities, live entertainment by local bands and displays of information brochures on how to access services offered by Government.

The Premier who will be delivering keynote address will also present the long awaited Provincial Youth Commission.

Thanking you
Nonkosi Dyan