Hon Chairperson, whatever the hon Watson said does not deserve any engagement, precisely because I doubt if he read the submission of the DA youth during public hearings, and so forth. What he said here, to me, comes as a total departure from what the DA youth was arguing about, in relation to that. [Interjections.]
Hon Chairperson, hon Minister and comrades, for some time now in this august House, we as members have been grappling with the question of youth unemployment, development and poverty. Year in and year out, during the debates that normally mark the celebration of Youth Month and for a very long time, during the policy and Budget Vote debates, we have been raising the question of youth development. Consistently, in line with the ANC policy positions on the youth, we have been saying that, as a stratum and a pillar of our society, there is no way that we could guarantee the future of our country if we do not align government policies to respond to the needs of young people. Therefore, we are noting that today marks a historic development in the lives of young people in this country.
Previously, many programmes and institutions were created in order to respond to the needs of young people in our country - of course, we have intentions. We have come to realise that, without proper co-ordination and determination to implement these programmes, sometimes very little gets achieved.
For some time we have observed a very bad phenomenon crippling young people, in that youth development was always associated with a blatant display of wealth, elitism and a high level of consumerism. Young people were made to believe that in order for them to be seen as successful, they need to be posh with total and absolute disregard for society as opposed to the overall development and contribution to society in general.
The Bill before us today provides, albeit not totally, a departure from the disintegrated programmes of youth development. It presents hope for young people in the rural areas who, not by choice, were unable to access services aimed at improving their lives. It is through this piece of legislation that we are going to see young people taking control of their own destiny.
Of critical importance in the Bill is the fact that there is a shift from the selfish outlook that young people of our country were exposed to. Not only is the Bill going to put in place systems that will be seen as advocacy institutions for young people, but at last the young people of Groblershoop will have an opportunity to engage directly with institutions that will relate to their needs at a contact level, because what the Bill also seeks to do is to ensure that there is contact and that at provincial level, there is a level of co-ordination and interaction.
It is a well-known fact that a strategic sector within our society, our young people, have been at the receiving end of most of the ills in our society. It is a fact that most of the people who are being abused by ruthless farmers are young farmworkers. The majority of them are denied a quality education or entry to universities. As a result, those who are subjected to poverty and unemployment are working-class young people.
As much as the 15-year review document released by the President reported that there was a significant reduction in the prevalence of HIV infection amongst those younger than 20 years, we know that the majority who remain infected are young people in the rural areas who find it difficult to access health services. It is a fact that the majority of those who are denied access to programmes geared at agrarian reform are young people who live in the remote rural areas of our country.
At the moment we have noted turbulence in the world economy. Much as we are told that the South African economy is capable of absorbing the pressure that comes with this turbulence, equally, we are told that some key sectors such as the automobile, banking and mining sectors are going to shed some jobs. There is no doubt that the people or strata that are going to bear the brunt of all these developments are young people once more. Thus it is important that in all respects the youth development agency should position itself to play the strategic role of ensuring that the young people of this country are not neglected.
It is important that, as Parliament, we remind those who would be responsible for the implementation of the Bill not to tell us that it is only limited to policy advocacy. For a very long time in this august House we have been calling for the establishment and support of co-operatives, particularly for young people, whether it be by the Department of Agriculture through its agrarian reform programmes, the Department of Public Works through the Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP, or the youth service. One consistent response we keep getting is the fact that co- ops were not catered for by law, and therefore there was no basis for them to be implemented or budgeted for. Now we are going to have the development agency, which, according to the Bill that we are presenting today, identifies the development and the support of youth co-ops as one of its core businesses. It is through such legislation that we will be able to take forward the call by the president of the ANC Youth League when he recently called upon young people to respect the cultural and value systems we were brought up to believe in and understand.
In fact, his call to young people is a reaffirmation of the belief of the ANC in the Freedom Charter in its totality and not selectively. In fact, some people need to be told that the overall thrust of the Freedom Charter is respect for human dignity. Whether one refers to a clause that speaks on education, governance, respect for the rule of law, accessibility to land and wealth in our country, or peace and friendship and so forth, all make reference to respect for human dignity.
Therefore, it would be naive to select only two to make a point, claiming ownership of the Freedom Charter, hence the correctness of the president of the ANC Youth League to call upon young people to observe setho le botho [humaneness and kindness].
May I conclude by stating that, as the ANC, our aim is the creation of work and to fight against poverty. We aim to move beyond the foundations as laid down in the Freedom Charter and whatever documents we had before the Ready to Govern programme and the Reconstruction and Development Programme. It is during times like these that our target ... [Time expired.]