Joburg Youth Unites Summit

June 24- 26th 2014 saw over 300 young people convene at Constitution Hill in Braamfontein for the Joburg Youth Unites Summit hosted by United Twenty-13 in partnership with Constitution Hill, Graduate Hub, City of Johannesburg and The Nelson Mandela Foundation. The idea behind the 3 day summit was to give feedback on the One Young World summit held in Johannesburg last year. The summit was curated by 8 of the 20 candidates chosen by Mayor Parks Tau to represent The City of Joburg as host city delegates at the summit. JYU focused on issues such as service, leadership, civic duty, education, sustainable development, entrepreneurship and other key areas of socio economic development.

The programme also included night sessions for young people who could not attend during the day because of other commitments, these were dubbed the Ubuntu sessions and featured a Ted- Talk like set up where industry experts such as Akin Omotoso and Melanie Ramjee shared their experiences and how they become ground breakers in their respective fields. 

The summit also took a look at what it means to be a young and living in Jozi, lunch breaks where edgy and youthful with 'make your own Kota', pizza and even a full day of vegetarian meals sponsored by Fry's Family exposing delegates to different lifestyles. plenary sessions were designed to be interactive using various forms of multimedia and even included a game of Amazing Race where attendees had to use clues to navigate various parts of the National Heritage Site allowing them to learn more about struggle stalwarts who were once held on the site and absorb a piece of their city generally frequented by tourists. 

Luvuyo Mandela and Justice Edwin Cameron

Delegates during the Amazing Race session

The final day of the summit featured a Doing Day where attendees spent the day at the No. 3 Kotze Street Shelter giving back and interacting with other young people who live at the halfway house. Attendees were requested to donate clothing, shoes, bags and non- perishable goods which were used to set up a pop- up shop where residents of the shelter had the opportunity to shop around for clothes and shoes of their liking.

BrandSA CEO Miller Matola and OYW ambassador Simamkele Dlakavu