Two of the graduates of the ‘What About the Boys?’ Primestars project of raising good men of the future Talana Mabitsela and Sibusiso Moyezana of Tswelopele High School in Thembisa. Photo: Masiso Siso

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Deputy Minister of Social Development Ganief Hendricks has urged South African communities to work closely with each other to cultivate a culture of respect in the
boy child on the journey to raise good men and put a stop to the slaughter of their own parents, grandmothers, grandfathers and girl sisters. Hendricks was a keynote speaker at a Primestars and Youth Start Foundation event in Sandton to mark a three-year impact assessment of the programme, What About the Boys? The project is a national anti-gender-based violence preventative and intervention programme launched in 2022 and designed to raise a new generation of good men.

“For far too long, we have been promoting equal gender parity at the expense of our boys and each year we count how many babes have been born but we don’t country how many of the stunted boys have produced those children,” Hendricks said. Hendricks noted that 70% of South African households are no longer headed by fathers and hence the boys ‘tend to grow with the weeds as no cultivates them to become good men in our communities’. He reminded the gathering about the role played by young people on the road to the attainment of the freedom being enjoyed in the country today. “We need to stop the boys from killing their grandparents, mothers and fathers, and their girl sisters.

“Those years they were able to deal with the inhuman system of apartheid that sought to dehumanise African communities and now they have to deal with a different kind of beast –that of gender-based violence in which they kill their own grandmothers, mothers and girl sisters,” Hendricks said. The deputy minister said he hopes the departmental programme ‘from school room to boardroom’ will ensure that workplaces become younger and younger as part of the fight the high levels of youth unemployment in the country which has been described as the biggest in the world. Hendricks acknowledged the Primestars project ‘What About the Boys?’ has amply demonstrated it can be done by giving help to the boys in their arduous journey to become good men of the future.

Renowned musician Nathi Mankanyi belted his songs to the delight of the audience at the ‘What About the Boys?’ event of Primestars. Photo: Masiso Siso

Social Development Deputy Minister Ganief Hendricks lloyds Primestars’ project ‘What About the Boys?’ which is designed to raise the boy child to a good man in future. Photo: Masiso Siso