Etienne Creux

Nokubonga Mthombeni, 7, showed off her moves during a kiddies hip-hop competition at the Tshwane Youth Development Day at Olievenhoutbosch on Saturday. Picture: Etienne Creux

The youth in Olievenhoutbosch have been reminded of the dangers of drugs and urged to rather look at participating in cultural activities.

During the Youth Cultural Festival held at Crescent Park in the area, mayoral committee member for safety and security, Terence Mashigo, warned the youth that should they be found drinking during school hours they would be sternly dealt with.

Saturday’s festival was organised by the Tshwane Metro Council. Mashigo said it was important for the youth to know what drugs did.

“We put a serious emphasis on drug awareness and from the response from the crowd we saw that we touched a raw nerve.

“We also told them that should they be found drinking during school hours they will be arrested,” he said.

The MMC for sports, recreation, arts and culture, Faith Kgaditse, whose department was behind the celebrations, said they had identified the area as one of the disadvantaged in the Tshwane metro and decided to do something about it.

The department handed over arts and culture equipment worth R400 000 to the Olievenhoutbosch Arts and Culture Forum for youth development programmes planned for the area.

“We gave them the equipment so they can take part in arts and culture,” she said.

Kgaditse said the event was aimed at at bringing the youth together, not only to commemorate the 35th anniversary of Youth Day, celebrated on June 16.

The event was also aimed at getting residents to interact with each other.

The National Youth Development Agency was also there to tell youngsters about opportunities and where they can get funding to get businesses up and running.

The festival was in response to the office of the executive mayor’s resolution that the city needs to develop a programme to complement Youth Day celebrations.

Olievenhoutbosch youth got a chance to showcase their talents as they took to the stage to wow the crowd. The festival culminated with DJ Oskido getting the crowd dancing after the formal presentations were done. – Pretoria News