Johannesburg, Wednesday 12 August 2015 – Brand South Africa recognises the critical role of youth in building our country’s global competitiveness. Brand South Africa urges the youth in South Africa to engage with and take ownership of the country’s National Development Plan (NDP) since this plan aims to reduce poverty and inequality by 2030. To ensure that young people can participate in building our country with the NDP as a foundation, the plan has a youth-centric focus.
In a bid to address some of the issue that the youth grapple with, such as alcohol, Brand South Africa has partnered with Association for Responsible Alcohol Use (ARA) and The Young Free & Educated (YFE) Programme.
ARA focuses its efforts on funding and implementing programmes aimed at advocating for responsible behaviour with regard to alcohol consumption. The programme is also aimed at educating young people about the challenges associated with the irresponsible consumption of alcohol including: drinking and driving, foetal alcohol syndrome, underage drinking. The YFE Programme is an ARA Programme which falls within the drinking and driving focus area. It is targeted at youth between the ages of 18 and 25, who are in institutions of higher learning.
Objectives of the ARA programme
The programme has six pillars; responsible alcohol use, road safety, personal financial management, academic excellence, national pride and patriotism as well as entrepreneurship. These pillars are informed by the thinking that in order to change drinking patterns, the culture must be addressed. Through this programme, the YFE and Brand South Africa’s Play Your Part programme would like to encourage young people to take responsibility for their development and the future they want.
The programme aims to capitalise on South Africa’s love of sports and music by making use of personalities in those areas to share messages and encourage youth to be more responsible. Among the ambassadors of the programme is Jabu Mahlangu, a soccer legend who has been a victim of irresponsible alcohol use, and Oskido, a musical entertainer with a history of working with youth, encouraging them to live responsibly.
YFE has a number of planned campus dialogues in which Brand South Africa will be participating. The dialogues are aimed at encouraging young South Africans to share their challenges and discuss solutions. Brand South Africa will address students and urge them to play their part to actively participate in building the country. The organisation aims to promote pride and patriotism and to highlight the significance of national symbols to youth in tertiary institutions.
The dialogues are aimed at:
• Providing a platform to exchange ideas on various issues that are crucial in encouraging national pride and patriotism
• Giving an opportunity to share success stories with young successful South Africans and inspire youth
• Change mind sets about the “victims of circumstances” mentality.
The campus dialogues
• Rhodes University
Thursday 13 August 2015
• University of Zululand
Thursday 27 August 2015
• University of Limpopo
Thursday 18 February 2016
• University of Venda
Thursday 25 February 2016
• Tshwane University of Technology
March 2016
About Brand South Africa
Brand South Africa is the official marketing agency of South Africa, with a mandate to build the country’s brand reputation, in order to improve its global competitiveness. Its aim is also to build pride and patriotism among South Africans, in order to contribute to social cohesion and nation brand ambassadorship.
