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.]