Chairperson, I should say that I did notice that when you were welcoming us, you looked at me and not at the hon the Deputy Minister sitting next to me.
I particularly welcomed my father. [Laughter.]
Oh all right, that is fine. [Laughter.]
Chairperson, I am particularly pleased to be here this afternoon because this is my first appearance in the NCOP, and I hope it will not be my last. The quicker the Chairperson invites me the better, because nobody knows whether one will be around or not.
What we are going to be discussing this afternoon is an amendment to the National Youth Commission Act. I commend this Bill to the House, in the interests of the smooth functioning of arrangements and attainment of sustainable youth development in South Africa. It is a critical area of responsibility for the democratic Government of this country. Workable arrangements we have sought and achieved through consensus rather than conflict will be an investment in the future wellbeing of the nation.
The essence of the intention of this measure is contained in clause 7A, in which it is said that there shall be a sound working relationship between the commission and the various provinces and their structures dealing with youth development. This is what is sought, and the legislative step recommended today follows a process of serious consultation to this end.
There is a need to have uniformity of approach to the development of our young men and women in South Africa. But care must be taken not to be too prescriptive, because provincial initiative and creativity should not be smothered but allowed to flourish. Our minds must be tidy, yes, but not overly so. It is a fact that some provinces have set up youth commissions, others have not. Some have set up structures such as subdirectorates and/or have appointed an MEC for Youth Affairs. Provinces might well have their own particular ways of handling matters, as long as these fit in with the broad national framework and intentions to enhance youth development.
The practical step proposed in this measure is to do away with the system of part-time youth commissioners, both those nominated by premiers for presidential appointment and those who were appointed on the basis of the nomination process in Parliament. It has been found that this arrangement was not particularly successful. For instance, there has been a measure of distance between the provincial and national efforts, and in some cases provincial representatives on the National Youth Commission have not enjoyed the support of provincial structures, and, indeed, in some cases were not even attached to statutory youth development structures in their provinces.
There is little value in having commissioners who are excluded from essential activity at one or other level. As a study of the amendments shows, what will be brought about is a streamlining in the number of national youth commissioners, which will lead to financial savings which can be redirected to programme work instead. This means that money which is saved will be available for concrete programmes, rather than being spent on the proliferation of national and provincial full-time and part-time commissioners. It is worth commending this approach, which seeks economy and reprioritisation. It is a matter of putting first things first.
It is also specifically laid down in the Bill that the relationship between national and provincial structures should be sound. To achieve this, for instance, minutes of the National Youth Commission must be submitted to provincial commissions and to MECs for youth affairs. I would appeal to those engaged in the new streamlined operation to seek a real spirit of accommodation and not just a formal stance of co-operation and information exchange.
I might mention that I would be most happy should Parliament continue to play an active part in this whole matter of seeking the best possible structures for youth development in the interest of smooth relationships. To this end, I would be happy to receive ideas and proposals from all parties in Parliament, and I firmly commit myself to giving serious consideration to these. If this means that we shall have to amend national legislation again, then let us do so. This is not a closed matter and I would like to appeal to those parties that may have indicated that they are unhappy with the amendment, to rethink their position in the light of my remarks, and to vote for the amendment proposed today. This is not a party- political issue, but a cross-cutting one which should continue to engage all of us in issues of fundamental importance to our nation's future. We want to have Parliament and the provinces behind us in this matter, for a national consensus on matters relating to the youth is the way of dealing with it. Let us be among the nations who really love the young, because, as someone once wrote:
Those who love the young best, stay young the longest.
[Applause.]
Chairperson, I suppose I will be the only person who will be addressing this Chamber from a wheelchair. Let me briefly comment on the context within which this Bill is developing. This year June 16 is going to be celebrated within the millennium context, characterised by the national and provincial commitment to the rebuilding of our nation. The National Youth Commission Amendment Bill should be seen as a progressive Bill, promoting proper co-ordination, constructive policy and strategy engagement between the National Youth Commission and the provinces.
This Bill tries to ensure that the vision we as Government had for the responsibilities of the National Youth Commission is implemented where it matters most. What the department has found is that the current structures within the National Youth Commission are cumbersome and unmanageable, which detracts from the noble objectives which the National Youth Commission has envisaged for itself.
The vision of the National Youth Commission is clear. They are focused on the positive development of all youth in South Africa, regardless of race, colour, creed or religion. To succeed in this task of elevating the status of youth in our society from a situation where they had been ignored by the previous apartheid government, the National Youth Commission needed to have a comprehensive restructuring of the way in which they conducted their business. This is also in keeping with President Thabo Mbeki's directive of more efficient and effective service delivery.
It became increasingly difficult for the National Youth Commission to implement its mission statement, namely to promote the development of young women and men through the design and implementation of a holistic and integrated national youth policy and national youth development plan by ensuring interministerial, intersectoral and intergovernmental collaboration for the advancement of young people through the involvement of all stakeholders. This Bill seeks to address the practical problems brought about by the excessive number of full-time and part-time commissioners. The Bill suggests only five full-time members of the commission.
The Bill also seeks to ensure closer collaboration and co-operation between provinces, so that the provincial youth commissions can work together with their national counterpart in a more co-ordinated fashion.
What this Bill also seeks to highlight is the need to have norms and standards that are applicable to all youth commissions, regardless of where they find themselves. This means essentially that all provinces should have commissions and they should all account in the same way.
These provincial youth commissions will also enjoy the same status as the National Youth Commission, but in the office of the premier. The mechanisms for communication are also stipulated in the Bill, in terms of which the National Youth Commission is compelled to submit minutes on a regular basis to its provincial counterparts. Any programme run by the National Youth Commission will hereafter have a better chance of reaching its intended audience in all nine provinces, with the spirit of co-operation with the provincial youth commissions that is envisaged by this Bill.
This committee will especially monitor the youth development efforts in all provinces, to ensure that there are equitable development patterns in all of the nine provinces without exception. However, it is not only this committee that has an obligation towards our youth. President Mandela made it clear that everyone, including Government, political parties, business and civil society, has a crucial role to play, both in ensuring that the directives of the youth policy are carried out, and that the youth commissions are empowered to complete their tasks effectively.
We salute the efforts of the National Youth Commission and we applaud the Office of the President for stepping in to alleviate the problems within the National Youth Commission.
In conclusion, I want to echo the sentiment of our former President when he received the National Youth Policy Document in 1997. He said, and I quote:
We must recognise the contribution young people make to our society. We must build upon the imagination, energy, vibrancy and talents of this, our most precious national asset.
[Applause.]
Chairperson, hon Minister in The Presidency, fellow colleagues from the provinces and the National Council of Provinces, I am highly honoured to be participating in this debate on the National Youth Commission Amendment Bill this afternoon, more so when this debate is taking place eight days before our national Youth Day, the 24th anniversary of that fateful day of 16 June 1976, when the courageous young people took to the streets in defiance against the introduction of Afrikaans as the sole medium of instruction in the schools.
As we debate this amending Bill this afternoon, we should do so in fitting honour of those young men and women who lost their lives at the hands of the apartheid security forces on that fateful day 24 years ago.
We must do so to tell Hector Petersen, Steve Biko and many others that their lives were not lost in vain, because we are today shaping the future of this country in the very same chambers that carried out instructions for their killing.
In 1985, 15 years ago, the then late President of the ANC, Comrade O R Tambo, in his response to the continued militarisation of white youth through military conscription, and to the continued harassment and persecution of black youth by apartheid security forces, had this to say: ``A nation that does not value its youth does not deserve its future.''
We are here today, after 15 years, in a situation in which millions of young people are still unemployed, illiterate, without adequate skills to meet the challenges of the modern labour market, and continue to be subject to and victims of dread diseases like HIV-Aids.
The ANC-led Government facilitated a consultative process, inclusive of all youth organisations to discuss mechanisms to integrate youth at the centre of Government processes of policy formulation and resource allocation.
The 1994 youth consultative summit agreed on the formation of the National Youth Commission as a body that would advise Government on matters that affect young people. The 16th of June 1996 saw the appointment and inauguration of the National Youth Commission by the then President of the Republic of South Africa, Comrade Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.
Allow me to highlight some of the key achievements of the National Youth Commission in the past four years. There is no doubt that this country never knew anything about a comprehensive national youth policy. It is the National Youth Commission which facilitated a process for the development of a comprehensive national policy, which is in place today. Amongst other things, this national youth policy is charging the National Youth Commission with the task of devising plans for the national youth service programme. Indeed, there have been consultative processes with all stakeholders within civil society and youth organisations across the country for the development of this national youth service programme.
As we debate this Bill today, business plans are being processed by the National Youth Commission on pilot projects on HIV/Aids, literacy and the rehabilitation of Government's buildings for access by disabled people as part of this national youth service programme. The National Youth Commission has put in place a national youth information service, which is a service offered free of charge to young people regarding career choices, HIV/Aids, life-skills and other related issues that are affecting young people on a daily basis. There is no doubt that this service has assisted many young people on a daily basis, particularly those in rural areas.
The Youth Commission, in conjunction with the Department of Correctional Services, has engaged in a project of capacity-building and rehabilitation of young offenders. This project is about providing capacity-building for young offenders in prisons, and about providing counselling for those who are in prisons at tender ages, so that when they come out of prison, they come out not as hardened criminals, but as people who can contribute to our society in a meaningful way.
The amendment of the National Youth Commission Act of 1996, as the Minister has alluded to, is nothing but the streamlining of youth development and the building of capacity of the National Youth Commission to play its role in surging forward the project of youth development.
It indeed befits today's debate that when we talk about the National Youth Commission Amendment Bill, we should do so mindful that our country has, for a long time, been polarised and divided. I have alluded to the message of the late president of the ANC when he referred to white and black youth. It is therefore the responsibility of all of us in this Chamber, irrespective of political affiliation, to play a role that will ensure that the young people of this country, people who are the architects of the future of this country, are afforded an opportunity to play a meaningful role in the construction of a new South Africa.
These people must be afforded an opportunity to develop themselves so that when they are adults, they are able to play a meaningful role in our society, a society that will not know any racism, and a society that will not know discrimination on the basis of race, religion or sex. That is the call and the challenge that I am making to all of us, irrespective of political affiliation, as we deal with this amending Bill today.
It is no secret that after the 1996 inauguration of the National Youth Commission, more than six provinces of this country followed the steps of the national Government by facilitating processes of establishing provincial youth commissions. Today only one province does not have a youth commission. I do not want to debate the pros and cons of why we do not have a youth commission in that province, because, indeed, we must salute the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, the hon Mr Mtshali, for having facilitated a process of establishing this structure, which is nonpartisan and which encompasses all youth organisations and groupings in KwaZulu-Natal. We are challenging everyone else to follow that particular route, because there is no way in which we can politicise this issue.
When we were listening to the debate of people who have dissenting views on this amending Bill, the arguments were about nothing - they were purely political. They were about who was going to be appointed to the Youth Commission and about the dominance of certain groupings in the Youth Commission. I do not think it is our business, in today's debate, to discuss those issues, because when we rewrite the history of this country, we will know that we had these structures in the former Bantustans and in the former government of South Africa. These structures were not meant to serve the interests of young people, but to indoctrinate them and to make them the troopers that would spread the message of division and discrimination amongst young people and to make them the loyal servants of the apartheid system. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Mevrou die Voorsitter, agb Minister en agb lede, die Nuwe NP glo dat die Nasionale Jeugkommissie van groot belang is, veral vir die jongmense in Suid-Afrika. Waarmee die Nuwe NP egter 'n probleem het, is dat daar na ons mening nie genoeg met die publiek daar buite beraadslaag is nie. Die Nuwe NP het sulke openbare verhore voorgestel, maar dit is van die tafel gevee. Ons het na die Minister geluister, en die Nuwe NP begryp die belangrikheid van die wysigings aan die hoofwet. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Mrs J WITBOOI: Madam Chairperson, hon Minister and hon members, the New NP believes that the National Youth Commission is very important, in particular for the youth in South Africa. what the New NP has a problem with, however, is that in our view there has not been adequate deliberation with the public out there. the New NP proposed such public hearings, but this was rejected. We listened to the Minister, and the New NP understands the importance of the amendments to the principal Act.]
Hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon MECs, special delegates from the provinces and hon colleagues, the DP is satisfied that the National Youth Commission has failed to fulfil its mandate, and therefore the proposed Bill cannot be supported.
The party is not concerned so much with the contents of the Bill, but with the ad hoc manner in which the Bill was presented, which left much to be desired. Indeed, the haphazard presentation of the Bill, through the various committee stages, is a sad indictment of the regard the committee has for its own commission. The commission itself has not been able to address the most pressing problem affecting the youth in South Africa, and that is HIV-Aids.
The sum total of its concerns has been to hold high-priced conferences and to put up illegible posters on dustbins, of all places, and perhaps the issuing of condoms, as if the use of prophylactics is all that stands between good health and the spread of Aids.
As regards the other scourge that confronts our youth, unemployment, what has the commission done to address it? Owing to a lack of relevant skills and experience, the commission itself has constantly outsourced most of its tasks.
What the DP proposes is the repeal of the National Youth Commission Act. Too many commissions, like too many boards in the previous regime, tend to bog down or paralyse the way Government functions. We need a new and a bold plan of action. A cursory reading of the website of the Youth Commission confirms our suspicion that there is a complete lack of a viable programme of action. Mere statements on problems and articulation of desired outcomes is simply skirting the issue.
The Youth Commission has failed miserably to draw up a clear-cut programme of action. In the process, taxpayer's moneys running into millions have been spent in order to inform the young, not about what is to be done, but about what is already known to them. Furthermore, if we are to be truthful, the National Youth Commission is largely an unknown quantity among the majority of youth. It has, in fact, been a classic marketing failure. Any information on the National Youth Commission is only available to those who have access to the Internet. [Interjections.] Such a blas attitude to the youth of our country and the most vulnerable and restless section of our citizenry, cannot be condoned or tolerated.
The youth of our country must not be seen as a problem to be dealt with, but rather as an invaluable asset which requires our prime time and our prime investment. My party - the DP - has already put out a programme of action, for instance, that will effectively deal with the massive unemployment among the youth ... [Time expired.]
Madam Chair, hon House, I must say that what the DP says is, indeed, very unfortunate and so myopic. I am saying this because I was a party to the development of the National Youth Commission in the National Assembly in the last term. When we voted on this, the DP was there and they voted on it, but today they are somersaulting. [Laughter.] This is really very unfortunate. [Interjections.]
The establishment of the Youth Commission signalled a very important consideration that the Government and this Parliament had about the role of the youth in our society. It actually indicated the seriousness with which we regarded this important segment of our society. The Youth Commission has been running for a couple of years now, and its work is there for all of us, including the DP, to see. [Interjections.] It has been engaged in a very important effort which seeks to address very complicated and urgent problems and challenges that confront the youth of our country.
The Bill that we are considering today actually seeks to establish that kind of co-ordination and further streamline the Youth Commission into a leaner, but more effective and representative structure. It is important, therefore, that we give our consent to the passage of this Bill as this will help usher in a new era in the life of the Youth Commission. We hope that this will go a long way in enhancing the effectiveness of our Youth Commission. The hon member next to me is saying, ``What has the Youth Commission done?'' I think the speakers before me have explained quite clearly what the Youth Commission has done. [Applause.]
Order! I am sure you will agree, hon Bhengu, that it is very difficult to somersault in the narrow NCOP benches. [Laughter.]
Madam Chair, hon Minister and Deputy Ministers present here, permanent delegates and special delegates from provinces, it is really unfortunate to speak after the DP, because the manner in which they address issues disrupts one's mind. Their narrow understanding of the Youth Commission shows a clear lack of understanding of what the mandate of the Youth Commission is. I think it will be important for the DP, and Mr Raju in particular, as part of the Council, to read the mandate of the Youth Commission.
Secondly, they need to understand that the issue of unemployment does not only affect certain people in our country. It affects all of us. We are clearly aware of what the causes of unemployment are in South Africa, namely the structured economy that we dealt with and the fact that our economy was destroyed in the past. I think that they must be aware of those particular issues.
The input Mr Raju has made also shows the lack of interest by the DP to address the fundamental concerns that affect young people and society at large, especially issues of unemployment, HIV-Aids and a whole range of other issues. The DP must get its act in order, because if it is a party with a vision, it will know that it has to invest in young people in order for its party to continue to exist. Otherwise, without the youth, it has no future as a party, and that is the message that we need to get through to it.
The National Youth Commission was established because of a particular historical importance. That historical importance is informed by the previous apartheid system of government which strategically worked in such a manner as to deliberately disadvantage, isolate and destroy the future of the majority of black young people in our society. In addition, the establishment of the Youth Commission is a recognition by our Government of the heroic contribution that young people have made in the attainment of our freedom and democracy.
We therefore need to be conscious of the fact that today, as we debate the amending Bill, it is only a few days before we commemorate the 24th June 16 anniversary. We will once more be reminded of the brutality of the apartheid system and its masters to which the taking of the lives of our innocent people was nothing else but an act of pride and glory. However, it will also remind us of the sacrifices that our young people have made in the struggle against oppression and exploitation.
When we look at the National Youth Commission Amendment Bill we should therefore look at it from the perspective of that important role that young people have played, and should continue to play, in the reconstruction and development of our society. We need to acknowledge that if we seek to build a better future for ourselves and generations to come, we should and must invest the necessary resources and energies towards the development of young people. We should therefore view the amendments that we are making within this particular context.
Clearly, in terms of the amendments, the question of co-ordination is an important aspect of our new system of governance and it is at the heart of our President's vision and that of his executive. Therefore the amendment emphasises the issue of national and provincial interaction in order to ensure that those who deal with issues of youth development deal with them in such a manner that they encourage the question of co-operative governance. Indeed, the NCOP would be doing the future of our country and our provinces an injustice if we were to be unable to pass this amendment.
This amendment also reinforces our policy position as Government. We must also note that despite the tremendous achievements that we are making, we still need to engage further on the issue of uniformity in approach towards youth development by all spheres of government. I am referring here in particular to the different approaches that the provinces have in furthering the goals of youth development. We honestly cannot afford a situation where we seem confused in addressing the concerns of young people in a holistic manner.
We need to continue with the debate of finding appropriate mechanisms of ensuring a united drive by all spheres of government in pursuing the agenda of our young people. It is therefore imperative that our future interaction should seek to find the necessary policy framework in order to regulate youth development in our country as a whole.
The reduction of the number of youth commissioners to five will save scarce resources and greatly contribute towards a better, efficient and proper co- ordination of the commission's work and programmes. Public participation in the nomination and interviewing process by the two Houses of Parliament will greatly improve the role of South Africans in determining who our commissioners should be. That is essential in strengthening our democratic rights and the principle of participatory democracy, transparency and openness, which the DP continues to advocate whilst doing the contrary. Moreover, this will make sure that youth development takes the national centre stage in our broader developmental agenda and therefore is able to unleash the greatest potential amongst the young people of our society.
We as the ANC support this amendment wholeheartedly, with the intention of furthering the interests of young people in our country as a whole.
Chairperson, I would like to start by thanking Mrs Witbooi. What she has demonstrated is that brevity can constitute the essence of content. [Interjections.] [Laughter.] I really want to thank her because however brief her intervention was, I found it quite important.
I would like to address my comments to Mr Raju from the DP. [Interjections.] Yesterday in the National Assembly the representative of the DP said the same things. The only difference is in the words used. Mr Raju says it is difficult to tolerate a blas attitude. I hope he understand that it is difficult to tolerate a blas attitude with regard to his simple amendment also.
The DP won about 10% of the vote in the last election. Therefore by no stretch of the imagination could they be speaking on behalf of the majority of the youth of this country. If one put the ANC and IFP together, that would constitute, in the National Assembly, and certainly more here in the NCOP, at least 77% of the votes cast in the last election.
I take it Mr Raju is talking on behalf of the privileged youth of South Africa which constitutes 10%. [Interjections.] It would therefore not be surprising if the National Youth Commission were an unknown entity to this privileged youth.
Perhaps it would be more useful if the DP, instead of engaging in simple rhetoric, tried to be more constructive and informed their privileged youth, which constitute 10%, about the National Youth Commission, because they could then come with very constructive ideas about how we could improve the work of the National Youth Commission. Quite clearly, there is room for improvement and there are many challenges that the National Youth Commission faces. I would be very happy, as I have said, to receive new and critical ideas and creative approaches in order to improve the work that we have to do with regard to youth development.
I think it is also necessary for me to correct some incorrect facts here. It is not true that the National Youth Commission has ignored the question of HIV-Aids in South Africa. In fact, since its inception, one of the critical areas of its work has been precisely on this question. If the National Youth Commission as well as other institutions and structures in South Africa need to do a great deal more on this question, surely that would be the right thing to do, and all of us have to make our own contribution.
I would like to appeal to Mr Raju to read the press release that has recently been issued by the National Youth Commission when it launched its Youth Month 2000 which reads as follows:
This year, the youth sector - which means almost all of the youth structures, minus, I suppose the DP youth - unanimously agreed that the fight against the spread of HIV-Aids must occupy the top of the agenda in the quest for a better South Africa, hence the agreed upon theme says: `Youth fighting HIV-Aids into the African Century'.
That tells us that the National Youth Commission is fully aware of its responsibilities to deal with the question of HIV-Aids.
What I would like to reiterate here is what I said when I introduced this amendment. We have introduced this amendment with a view to trying to streamline the functions and work of the National Youth Commission. But it would seem to me that we should not stop here. We should see this as, perhaps, another beginning in terms of looking at how we can improve the relationship and the co-ordination that should take place between the National Youth Commission and whatever provincial structures are in place. I actually thought that the ANC speaker was going to mention Gauteng, but it does not have a representative on the National Youth Commission.
As we work towards this goal, we must also seek to continually improve the co-ordination that is required between the national and provincial structures, including local government structures. In the end, it is only if all of us work together that we will improve that co-ordination. If all of us could, at least on some of these issues, forget our party-political positions and acknowledge that we are facing a national problem, we could arrive at a national consensus of dealing with this national problem of youth development in a way which, to some extent, cuts across party- political positions and certainly across continually making party-political propaganda.
My hope is that this debate will, at least, cause the DP to sit and think about what they said this afternoon, to go back and look at the amendment again, and after this, to come up with a more constructive approach so that all of us can do some work. It does not help to shout and repeat statements and to fall into ritualistic, rhetoric propaganda. It does not help the youth, and it certainly will not even help the 10% privileged youth which the DP claims to represent. [Applause.]
Order! That concludes the debate on this Order. The question on this Order shall be put after we have concluded the debate on the cluster of security and justice Ministries.