Youth upbeat about SA

The Forum concentrated on students living within Beeld's distribution area, who were nominated as prime candidates by their schools. The theme for the Forum, held at the Potchefstroom Campus of the University of the North West, was "South Africa 2020".

Dirk Jordaan, organiser of the Youth Forum and senior assistant editor at Beeld, says: "The purpose of the Beeld Youth Forum is to teach young people to think critically at an early stage of life, to encourage them to develop their leadership potential and to broaden their minds through evoking discussions with some of the country's foremost thinkers.

"Concentrating on our distribution areas, pupils were also encouraged to form a relationship with Beeld and allow for early readership habits to emerge."

It was clear from the youths' feedback that in general our young population is positive about SA's future and issues such as affirmative action, the governments' reaction to the situation in Zimbabwe, crime, unemployment, HIV/AIDS, the 2010 Soccer World Cup Tournament and economic growth, are important and real to them in terms of finding a peaceful resolution.

"We have South Africa's support in this initiative and have received a firm interest from the industry as to the opinions, insights and suggestions made by these model students," says Henry Jeffreys, senior deputy editor at Beeld and spokesman for the forum.