Chairperson, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon members, guests and the secretary of the ANC from the Eastern Cape Province, comrade Mabuyana, feel it, it is here!
In the life of a nation, there arise men who leave an indelible and eternal stamp on the history of their peoples, men who are both products and makers of history. And when they pass they leave a vision of a new and better life and the tools with which to win and build it.
These are not just ordinary words; they are words that were used by Dr Dadoo when describing Moses Kotane. Are we then that youth today, given the current challenges of the century? An honest response coupled with serious introspection will make future generations really proud of us.
The challenges facing young people within the economic realm are multifaceted. For instance, the majority of unemployed young people experience long-term unemployment. Even those who are employed are concentrated in the service sector and tend to work in temporary positions. Racial and gender contradictions manifest themselves as Africans experience higher rates of unemployment compared to their counterparts in other race groups, and women relative to men.
It has also been suggested that youth self-employment could help to achieve youth development, employment creation and poverty reduction. For the majority of those who cannot access wage employment, the alternative to unemployment is self-employment. However, this appears to be an option chosen only by a small proportion of young people, despite the high unemployment rate among them.
As we are in the month of the official start of the 2010 Soccer World Cup, it is in order to remember what was said by one of the African revolutionaries in an economic summit of his country, the late Moses Samora Machel:
In reality a country that does not ensure the involvement of all its population at all levels of economic activity is certainly going to perform well below its actual potential.
[Applause.]
I am deliberately quoting him as we are to witness the first Fifa Soccer World Cup on our beloved continent, Africa.
A thriving economy should reflect the natural endowments of the country and the creativity that a skilled population can offer. It should be an economy in which cutting edge technology, labour-absorbing industrial development, a thriving small and co-operative sector, utilisation of information and communication technologies and different forms of production and management are combined to ensure national prosperity.
This is conditional on ensuring that the brains and brawn of all society are brought to bear on all economic activities. It requires deracialising ownership and control of wealth, management and professions.
From the fundamental principles of building an economy utilising all the available factors of production, the youth is an integral component of ensuring that attainment of transformation, which is being sought in the national democratic revolution. The South African nation is called to encourage, harness and incorporate the creativity, daring and energy of the youth into its endeavours. This relates to such issues as access to social and economic opportunities, engendering activism around development and values of community solidarity as well as creating the space for youth activity to thrive.
While the national democratic revolution creates an environment for discharging potential capabilities, it also recognises the youth as one of the motive forces of production in line with the character of a national democratic society. Such a character includes local economic development, research and development, job creation and skills development.
In the quest to realise these objectives and in pursuit of its major task of a better life for the youth, the ANC Youth League has placed itself at the centre of the broadest spectrum of youth organisations for the advancement of a youth agenda in areas of social and economic transformation.
The manifesto of the ANC at its last congress correctly noted the challenges and the way forward. It is against this background that the government has to ensure that the agency is at the centre of the developmental programme of the government, and that this agency is capacitated and resourced to provide leadership in encouraging youth participation in production and developmental activities. While the economic development of young people remains critically important because it is a matter of economic survival and advancement, the government would have to promote issues relating to social elements of youth development. These are issues of spiritual and cultural development, which are vital for societal development.
The right of the youth to be involved and contribute to their development finds credence in a statement by the former President of the ANC Youth League. Responding to a question about the growing unemployment of young people in the country, Comrade Malusi Gigaba said:
There are specific interventions that we want our government to do on our behalf, supported by us and in partnership with us - the youth. You must also know that we are attending to the matter of self-employment because we would like the youth to become entrepreneurs. We would like to see a national consensus emerging on a national youth entrepreneurship strategy, with targets and clear time frames and support mechanisms. In this is also incorporated the idea of youth co-operatives.
[Interjections.]