Johannesburg - The launch of this year's National Youth Month in Soweto was overshadowed by a disgruntled organisation demonstrating about the shortage of sanitary pads for needy schoolgirls.
Amandla.mobi campaigner Thuli Ngubane said the government was failing the people it should be paying more attention to.
“There are children who don't go to school because they haven't got pads, and with the newspapers and socks they use, they don't feel at ease when at school,” she said.
“Education is the most important thing, but each year these girls lose 30 days of school because the government has continuously failed to provide pads like they do condoms,” she said.
Wednesday's launch of the 2016 Youth Month took place at the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum in Orlando West, Soweto, where the 1976 uprisings against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in schools took place 40 years ago.
Ngubane said while it was great that some organisations were donating sanitary pads to schools, this wasn't sustainable.
Lesego Mokopi, 13, a member of the Girl Child Movement, is in desperate need of help with sanitary pads.
“Before I joined the Girl Child Movement, which has really helped me, I used to wash people's laundry just to be able to buy pads. I live with my 10 cousins and only see my mother once a month,” she said.
Lesego highlighted the plight of many other schoolgirls without sanitary pads, saying she used toilet paper and cloth when she didn't have pads. “It is very uncomfortable as it is to be having your period, but when I use toilet paperas a pad I cannot move around a lot - just in case I stain my skirt.”
Young people from across the country gathered at the historic memorial site in Soweto on Wednesday.
Officials from the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), the Department of Arts and Culture and the City of Joburg were among those in attendance at the event.
A facilitator from the Department of Arts and Culture asked if the demonstration could be moved away from this particular event, as it was to celebrate Youth Month and not a platform for protests.
Despite the protests, the event went ahead.
Officials were unanimous in their praise for young Hector Pieterson and his comrades for their role in fighting for the liberation of today's youth.
NYDA chief executive Khathu Ramukumba highlighted economic programmes aimed at helping the youth.
He said the agency had partnered with South African Breweries on a road trip that would provide potential young entrepreneurs with business training.
“The NYDA and SA Breweries will be giving the youth the platform and the training to kickstart their businesses. We will take the best business ideas and award those young entrepreneurs with business development plan training,” he said.
Among the beneficiaries is Thabo Diseko, 33, who was awarded R50 000 to start his aluminium windows and doors business.
“Through the NYDA, I have managed to expand my business and I was able to hire young people. I managed, with my business, to get people to move away from drugs like nyaope and be decent employees,” he said.
The Star