By Bida Elly David
A concerned citizen and a state Member of Parliament has raised a concern to the national authority concerning the underestimation of young people regarding access to sports and games pitches to be used for promoting football activities among others in the Country.
According to recent reports from sports analysts, most plots of land in Juba have been used for establishing shops, rental buildings such as apartments without recognizing sports and games activities meant for entertaining citizens for peaceful cohesion.
Speaking during a one-day drill on the deliberation of the national land policy, Victoria Nasira, Central Equatoria state Member of Parliament pointed out that it would be a national failure if the land policy sweeps off the need to secure space for the young generation to mitigate crimes.
Recently the chairperson of South Sudan football Association revealed that the Country has only one football stadium that hosts all national football tournaments.
“In South Sudan, we have many deserted areas and in these deserted areas we have many spaces that would have been used as football grounds for our children but many use them for building structures. We need to provide spaces for football pitches for our children to access sporting and child friendly homes purposes”.
She reiterated that the parliament through the land policy should ensure provision of enough space for running sports activities to keep the young generation busy instead of committing crimes in the city.
The state MP argued that children are forming gang groups because there is nothing that can keep them busy in all times.
“Most of the crimes happening in the city are because we don’t commit our children in extra curricula activities. If we secure enough spaces for sports activities in the Country, then we will be able to reduce the troubles caused by these young boys in town” said Victoria.
She further said that it would be meaningless if the leaders watch young generation causing troubles across the Country without any strategy.
“Open places have been used for businesses. It will not make sense if the leaders see our young generation causing crimes of all kinds without helping them out. Young people need to be committed through businesses as well as other activities. Some of them involve in night robbery with the aim of meeting their needs since they could not be cared for by their parents and the government,” she said.
Victoria also reiterated the need for the parliament to put into consideration a priority of securing a garbage dumping space since citizens have been engaged in random dumping of garbage in the city.
She said that littering the city with garbage was one way of inviting various medical complications to the residents’ causing difficulties in accessing attention as well as fighting financial constraints.
“If we see in the town, we don’t have land used for dumping garbage since all the spaces have been occupied. If we can secure plots of land for dumping garbage, it will be very easy for us to maintain hygiene and keep our people away from carrying financial burden to treat diseases” she said.
The lawmaker stressed that it’s their collective responsibility to ensure that they keep hygiene in the Country.