Maputo — Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Wednesday urged young people, as the most dynamic part of society, to adopt a culture of hard work.

He was speaking in Maputo at a meeting with the National Youth Council (CNJ), represented by its chairperson, Osvaldo Petersburgo, and various other Mozambican youth associations. Results from the “youth observatories” organised by the CNJ were presented at the meeting.

“Young people should believe that things do not just happen”, said Guebuza. “They happen in a cycle of production that we must respect, What we can do is enter that cycle and become agents”.

He asked his audience to face adversity with patience, but look to the future with optimism, always thinking of work. He stressed that the task of young people is not merely to deal with their own problems, but to seek solutions to problems that face all of society.

He recalled that his own generation, which waged the armed struggle to free the country from Portuguese colonial rule, was an example of young people who were concerned to solve the problems of society.

“When we speak of the 25 September generation (the date of the start of the independence war in 1964), we are talking of a group of young people who felt various problems, which were in essence the problem of colonisation which was the problem of all of society”, Guebuza said. “They decided they would tackle this problem and they tackled it”.

But he acknowledged that not all young people faced the problem – some had remained indifferent and did not join the cause. So he believed that today not all Mozambican youths will feel committed to solving the problems of their society.

Some would not do so for lack of opportunity, he said, and others simply for lack of initiative. “There are some people who suffer and resign themselves to suffering”, he added, “but there are young people like you who say no, we were not born to suffer”.

For his part, Petersburgo said that the areas of focus for the youth observatories are health, education, employment, housing and youth participation. These areas were chosen as the ones that most concern young Mozambicans.

He added that one of the main duties of the CNJ is to guarantee communication between youth and the government, so that young people can participate actively in the agenda of governance.

“The CNJ has been developing a programme to promote the participation by young people in the country’s development, through holding the youth observatories, which have involved a total of 1,037 youths in eight province”, said Petersburgo.

He added that the CNJ has been training young people in matters linked to instruments of governance, notably the annual economic and social plans at provincial level.