'Youth need to change their way of thinking'

SOUTH African youth need a change of psyche and a change of attitude, says Kagisho Mahura, founder of Gradidge Mahura Investments.

Mahura was speaking at the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants Leadership Programme dialogue held in Johannesburg recently.

The event was aimed at challenging the status quo by entrenching a paradigm shift among what it called an entitled generation. Mahura emphasised a need to inculcate confidence in the youth at an early age.

He said interpretation and implementation of policies had to be used to close the equality gap in order to manage transfer of skills. "There is a need for the development of a different psyche among young people, an attitude that says, 'I can do something better with myself and I don't want hand-outs'," he said.

The head of Accountants Leadership Programme (ALP), Champ Thekiso, and the programme's committee said the programme was established to help young professionals become part of accelerating transformation as they were mentored to also mentor upcoming chartered accountants.

Katlego Tlale, senior accountant, audit energy and natural resources, at KPMG, said the programme had helped him blend into the corporate world and he had the pleasure of giving back by also serving as a mentor.

The CEO of Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo, Victor Sekese, said that there was a void in the value system as most young people came from broken homes and disadvantaged communities, but said significant support had to be given to the youth so they could aspire to study and become business owners.