Youth must rise to tackle challenges

A wise man once said: "If everyone sweeps the front of his gate, the whole street will be clean."

I am addressing this letter to all the youth of South Africa.

The socioeconomic challenges we face should not push us to abuse alcohol and take drugs. They simply mean we should sit down and chart a way forward on how best we can beat these challenges. As opposed to the youth of 1976, our struggle is not poor education but social challenges such as unemployment, child abuse, HIV-Aids, and drug and alcohol abuse.

What are we, the youth of today, doing to deal with the societal challenges that seem to be flushing our lives down the drain?

As a youth myself, I know some of us have resorted to crime, laziness and hopelessness as a way of wiping away the tears of our own failures. Some have given up on uplifting our lives because we have tertiary qualifications but can't get jobs. Some of us have resorted to alcohol and drug abuse to temporarily shy away from the problems.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. Let us not give up, for we owe it to ourselves to better our lives.

Let us be creative and come up with ideas that will steer us to our preferred destinations. If we do nothing, we run the risk of becoming nothing.

Let us confront our challenges with a positive attitude.