You wish, my darling! [Applause.]
The emphasis of the above response underscores the importance of economic participation as a critical national process for growth. The National Youth Development Agency, in partnership with government departments, has initiated and implemented programmes that are targeting the youth. Some of the programmes are earmarked for this year.
The programmes that I am talking about are as follows: The National Youth Service and volunteer programmes, which are aimed at young people for community development. In collaboration with 19 departments, it is encouraging to note that this programme has benefited more than 15 000 young people and the volunteer programme is in excess of 20 000.
The Expanded Public Works Programme has created more than 1,5 million work opportunities since its inception, of which 30% has benefited the youth mainly in infrastructure; the social environment and economic sectors; and youth advisory centres for career development and improving access to employment opportunities.
Over 1,1 million youth have benefited since the inception of this programme. The Targeted Skills Development Programme, is focusing on training interventions for young graduates. The projects are implemented through the FET colleges and NGOs.
With regard to economic participation for 2010 to 2011, the NYDA will focus on intensifying the National Youth Service Programme, the creation of business opportunities for young entrepreneurs, mentorship programmes, business consultancy vouchers and entrepreneurship education.
Various surveys and economic experts agree that unemployment mostly affects young persons in the age group of 17 to 24 years, in excess of 50%; and the age groups of 25 to 34 years, above 30%. Those who are employed are mainly in short-term, contractual jobs that do not offer job security or a skills transfer; and they do not belong to the trade unions.
Youth in rural areas face additional constraints, such as accessibility to services and facilities compared to their urban counterparts. These constraints result in the increasing migration of rural youth to urban areas and reproduce the cycle of rural poverty, hence the government has prioritised rural development.
To improve the economic circumstances of the youth requires the acknowledgement of the fact that various forms of employment are central to finding lasting solutions. Government has created several initiatives that are geared towards the participation of young persons in the mainstream economy.
Some of these initiatives have had a very limited impact as their implementation has not been aligned with similar programmes of other government agencies.
According to the National Youth Policy Framework, the absorption capacity of learnerships is insufficient to meet the demand from industry or to absorb the supply of young people requiring training.
Self-employed youth or aspiring young entrepreneurs face a variety of barriers to entry to trading if they are already in business. These include lack of appropriate business education, limited access to capital, lack of social or business networks or access to markets for their products and services as well as the availability of basic service facilities, especially for rural youth.
The lack of access to capital is one of the key barriers to youth participation in the economy. It is in that context that we are urging Members of Parliament to make sure that the newly enacted Money Bill is really put into practice to push for an effective National Youth Development Agency budget, in order to push away the frontiers of poverty facing young people.
It would be advisable that the national youth fund, under the national youth development agency, should create funding models that absorb high- risk premiums to make the cost of capital cheaper for potential youth entrepreneurs with sustainable business plans, compared to private sector financial institutions that do not, in most cases, fund high-risk projects.
I hope hon members will really understand the critical challenge faced by the NYDA. It is not an issue that can be debated, but it must be realised.
It is essential that the NYDA must be a catalyst for diverse and creative ideas that include other progressive stakeholders, in support of the overall objectives of the ANC-led government for advancing the development and empowerment of young people.
Oversight and other mechanisms created in the National Youth Development Agency Act should be used to ensure accountability of the agency to young people.
Needless to mention it, young people need to directly influence the process of appointing the people to govern the agency and operations of the board to deal with the challenges of education and agriculture. Indeed, an NYDA that is efficient is critical.
The role of the fourth democratic, activist Parliament is a must in advancing the national democratic revolution. For the benefit of the opposition, the National Democratic Revolution is a process of the struggle that seeks to transfer power to the people, and transform society into a nonracial, nonsexist, united and democratic one; that changes the manner in which wealth is shared, in order to benefit all the people. [Applause.]
In conclusion, today we are proud of the role played by the past generations and we want future generations to be proud of us. Hence I leave you to be always conscious of the seven things that will destroy us if we are not careful, as mentioned by Gandhi.
These are: politics without principles, science without humanity, religion without sacrifice, commerce without morality, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character and wealth without work. Thank you. [Applause.]