Hon Speaker, the recent results of census 2011 point to the fact that 60% of South Africans are under the age of 35, and this indicates an urgent need for a youth Ministry to be created by government. The youth Ministry should take the form of a fully fledged and well- resourced government department in order to rapidly implement positive youth development and take responsibility for all youth affairs. The current situation that youth are left out of the decision-making process by government is totally unacceptable. Such an institution should be focused on implementation and oversight of youth development in and out of government rather than the current situation of the NYDA, National Youth Development Agency, which advances an ad hoc approach to youth development.
This Ministry would operate in all three spheres of government, giving a practical voice to the concerns of the youth of our country. The rejection of this proposal over time by the ANC, simply because it's an IFP proposal, is narrow-minded, to say the very least, and should not be going on, because this is not about the IFP but, importantly, it's about the youth of South Africa. [Applause.]