From the Top Letter from the CEO - Siza Mzimela

June is the month when we honour our youth as the foundation and fabric of our society, and for their contribution to the creation of a new South Africa. It is a month when as parents, we provide consistent affection and discipline and foster the development of family privilege.

As we celebrate the development of our youth, it is important to ask: Do we value our young people? If so, how do we show them that? If not, what does that mean - for them and for us?

Tough questions, which are impossible to answer in a few paragraphs, but in short, we can agree on three things:

Early intervention: children are influenced, for good or bad, from the moment of birth. Waiting to begin intervention programmes until kindergarten is waiting too long.

Prevention: fixing problems is less effective and more difficult than preventing them, yet that's the approach taken by many youth programmes.

Sense of community: positive personal relationships with adult role models make a huge difference in a child's life, as does a sense of community.

Role models serve as an inspiration, and their dreams can help others build dreams of their own. These role models must show leadership in their communities. They show in their words and their deeds the traditions of wisdom, love respect, bravery, honesty, humility and truth.

We all agree that government policies and programmes alone cannot address youth development. It takes families, civic and religious organisations, businesses and citizens, all of them playing important roles, to change the status quo.

Importantly, the voices of the youth themselves must be heard as we chart new courses and improve our society.

The government can provide tools to enable its people to be fully functioning citizens, but the government cannot create citizens. The responsibility lies in each of us. Unless we help our young people develop a sense of stake in their communities and their futures, there may be neither communities nor future.

We understand that a variety of stressors can interfere with normal parenting and youth development. These include hurried lifestyles, work pressures, poverty, divorce, illness, disability, criminality, and substance and physical abuse.

We know that adults who are extremely stressed, or who lack parenting skills, cannot form the secure bonds necessary for positive youth development.

As we celebrate youth month, we are aware that the youth should play an active part in the economy of the country. That is why they form the backbone of our pilot cadet and cabin crew training and revenue management centres. From here they grow up to take up senior positions within the airline.

We also know that if we are to defeat the scourge of HIV/AIDS, our youth must play an important role.

At SAX, we know that the fight against AIDS needs a social revolution. Once more the youth of our country are called upon to play a leading role in a social revolution as they did so heroically in the revolutionary struggle against apartheid.

Our AIDS awareness programme stresses that we need a fundamental change of mindset with regard to the way we speak and behave about sex and sexuality. Boys and men have a particularly critical role in this challenge, changing the chauvinist and demeaning ways sexuality and women were traditionally dealt with.

An important task that we continue to face has to do with strengthening the youth development institutions such as the South African Youth Council, Umsobomvu Youth Fund and the National Youth Commission.

Our youth have a responsibility to work to heal the country and we have a better chance of succeeding than our elders who may have been more intimidated by the abuses of the past.

In practical terms, this means working together to educate people of their responsibility in eradicating racism, eliminating poverty, fighting youth unemployment and creating job, training and entrepreneurship opportunities for the youth.

May our youth continue to imbibe traditions of wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility and truth.

Siza Mzimela

Kanana Kau South African Express Key Accounts Manager

Kanana has been working at South African Express Airways (SAX) as the key accounts manager for almost two years. It is her job to look after the customers, put together travel packages, drive sales and stimulate air traffic. In short, to make sure that everyone gets a good deal.

She talks about her job with ease and a smile on her face. She enjoys what she does and she does it well. Her office is colourfully painted with children's art and family and work-related photos, and she has several jars of sweets on her shelf revealing a sweet tooth. Her office is warm and homely and it is reflected in the way she talks about her job.

"This company has a wonderful family-like atmosphere and we all have a direct line to the CEO, so there isn't any red tape that can hamper us. Every day is different and I can really see myself retiring with this company. There isn't ever a day where you don't feel like coming to work because you are made to feel as if you are really adding value to the company. You want to do your job to the best of your ability so that no one is left disappointed," she says with enthusiasm shining in her eyes. "Good leadership is really what makes a business successful and you need to surround yourself with people you trust and believe in. That is what SAX has done and I think that is why we are such a happy, successful company," she continues.

Having spent most of her childhood in Botswana, Kanana grew up as part of a big family with two brothers and two sisters. She admits that with so many children in the house, they were always vying for attention from their parents, and for this reason she has decided that she would have only two children. "I want to give them all the attention they need and there is a part of me that even dreams of being a stay-at-home mom, but I am too ambitious for that. I have a lot of fun with my two girls who are aged eight and twelve. They are currently going through a Michael Jackson phase and we have been doing a lot of dancing to the DVD lately," Kanana says with a smile.

She moved to South Africa just after matric, which is where she met her husband. Married for 13 years, Kanana speaks about her 'significant other' with the kind of affection present only in those who are head over heels in love. "We met at a party in the late eighties and I was wearing the most hideous pair of pink pants. I suppose he just couldn't miss me in them!" she laughs. "He took me outside and showed me his car which had a playboy bunny sticker on the window. He said that if ever I was at a party I should look out for the playboy bunny sticker and come looking for him. He asked me out on a lunch date, but when we got there he looked at me and said 'you're not hungry so you're going to have a coke, right?' It being lunch I was starving but went with the coke. Years later I found out that he actually had no money to pay for lunch," laughs Kanana.

Kanana is intent on broadening her children's horizons and giving them a good education. At least once a year she travels abroad with her family. She feels that travelling is one of the best ways to broaden the mind and make you appreciate your own country. " I want my children to experience as much as they can and think that travelling is a wonderful opportunity if you can afford it. And besides, I'm a shopaholic and nothing beats retail therapy in another country," she adds with a twinkle in her eye.

She tells of a recent trip to Brazil where her guilty pleasure got the best of their budget. "Long before we had left for South America I had worked our budget out to the T, but when I saw all the shoes they have there, the budget flew out the window. When it came to checking out of the hotel I had spent so much money on shoes we didn't have enough to pay for the hotel. I had to make a quick call to my bank manager and it was very embarrassing," laughs Kanana.

Looking back on all her travels, Kanana says that the one place she would keep returning to is Phuket. "Besides the scenic beauty, the people are so friendly and they really understand the importance of nurturing the tourism industry. But I must admit that South Africa is the one country that really has it all. We have great diversity in the country and you can really get the best of everything within a few hours' travel," she explains. Finding someone who achieves perfect balance in life is rare, but Kanana is living proof that you really can have it all.