allAfrica: African news and information for a global audience.allAfrica.com: South Africa: National Service Will Be 'Unavoidable' - Sisulu HOME SiteFranaisSiteGuideWhoWeAreContentProvidersAdvertisingMyAccountMyAfricaBiztechSustainablePeaceMobile South Africa: National Service Will Be 'Unavoidable' - Sisulu 4 May 2010 Email|Print|Comment Share: Johannesburg DEFENCE Minister Lindiwe Sisulu told Parliament today that she intends to introduce a bill that will provide the legal framework for the creation of National Service. "This will not be a compulsory national service, but an unavoidable national service," she said. She emphasised that this will not be compulsory National Service. "We do not want to repeat the mistakes of the past," Sisulu added. She proposes that SA consider the possibility to create a national service in the next year, where all youth will be gradually absorbed into training facilities. "What we offer is skills that each would be able to build on, we offer training in discipline that which would create a sector, whether public or private, which is firmly grounded in a purposeful sense of tomorrow. What we offer is education, in essential respect for each individual and authority: an element you will all agree is not in abundance in our youth," Sisulu said. "Throughout the world the defence force is used for precisely the purpose for which we propose it should be used for SA," she said. "Young people are leaving school with no skills and no prospect of being absorbed into a labour market that is already is glutted." "Any television footage of service delivery protests will show you that at the forefront of this, in great majority are our youth, with excessive anger and misdirected energy and frustration etched on their faces. We as a country can ill afford this. Our youth are an asset and we must direct them properly," she said. "History is replete with examples of how turning the youth into a disciplined purposeful force can change the fortunes of a people. Our own history tells how by using the...
