Deputy Chairperson, in 1996, implementing the injunctions of the RDP, the government adopted the National Youth Commission Act. This was a first in the history of this country and it established an institutional mechanism to address the socioeconomic aspirations of young people.
Of course, in acting in this way, government was determining that it should intervene immediately to reverse the socioeconomic marginalisation the youth suffered under apartheid and involve them in the processes of democratic transformation.
Basing itself on this understanding, the ANC considered youth development and youth mobilisation to be vital to the processes of fundamental social transformation in South Africa. To address the specific challenges faced by the youth was central to addressing the broader needs of the masses of the people, because the youth had fought for freedom as a central component part of these masses and not as an isolated or parallel sector.
You could not say to the youth that their aspirations would be addressed in the broader process of addressing the general needs of the general public without a targeted approach to what was a serious specific challenge.
Thus, youth development refers to the programme both to redress the grave effects of apartheid on the black youth in particular, and to empower the youth with the capacity fully and ably to participate in both society and the economy.
This is so because unless this is done, the youth will remain marginalised. Accordingly, Chapter 3 of the RDP said that youth development must generally focus more on education and training, job creation and enabling young people to realise their full potential and participate fully in the society and their future.
It must restore the hope of our youth in the future and in their capacity to channel their resourcefulness and energy into reconstruction and development. The RDP further noted that the high levels of youth unemployment require special programmes, and consequently directed that a National Youth Service Programme be established, and that such a programme be regarded not merely as a job creation measure but as youth development and capacity-building. To facilitate the establishment and implementation of this programme, the RDP then directed that a national institution must co-ordinate the programme in consultation with other sectors, and went on to say and, I quote:
Appropriate government departments must more fully represent youth interests including through the allocation of resources to organisations involved in youth work.
An autonomous youth council should be given support in co-ordinating youth activities lobbying for the rights of our people and representing South Africa internationally. A review of legislation affecting youth and the implementation of youth service programmes must also be carried out.
What we are doing today in this House is to give effect to the injunctions of the RDP empowered by the experience of the past 12 years since the establishment of the National Youth Commission and 10 years since the Minister of Finance announced the intention to establish the Umsobomvu Youth Fund.
The truth is that during the past 12 years, we have tried to implement the letter of the RDP in its spirit to establish the legislation for the implementation of the Youth Development Programme, adopt the National Youth Policy, establish the National Youth Commission, adopt the National Youth Service Programme and establish an interdepartmental committee to ensure co- ordination between appropriate government departments so that they more strongly represent youth interests and strive for co-ordination between government and nongovernmental organisations to enhance youth development efforts better. What we are doing today is to review that experience, to improve the capacity we have, to pursue the ideals of the RDP and of youth development.
The National Youth Development Agency is an attempt to address the disjuncture that existed between the National Youth Commission, as a policy- making structure without implementing powers or capacity, and hence a limited budget, and the Umsobomvu Youth Fund as an implementing structure, albeit without a policy mandate.
This meant that we had a commission that could only think but had no capacity or mandate to implement its own thoughts, while the fund had to implement ideas conceived elsewhere.
The problem was that while the commission had the mandate spelt out in the commission, the fund had no similar mandate and had to make up its mandate as it went about its business.
Naturally, in this instance, because the two structures were independent of each other and had different political principles, mandates and programmes, whilst their field of work - youth development - was the same, there were unavoidable, unnecessary tensions and duplications. The National Youth Development Agency will, therefore, seek to address this problem. But we must avoid the danger of regarding it as a panacea for all the problems faced by the youth.
A perfect model for the implementation of youth development has not yet been achieved. Even the National Youth Development Agency itself, as we are establishing it today, would still again need to be remodelled in future to meet new challenges, learning from the experiences it will accumulate as it goes about its business.
Accordingly, and as part of its immediate responsibilities, it must implement an integrated youth development strategy. In broad terms, the National Youth Development Agency should exist for the purposes of implementing and investing in youth development programmes that promote participation in the formal labour market, entrepreneurship, human capital development, and access to information by young people through streamlined and targeted youth information programmes.
It must further support research and capacity-building projects. The establishment of the agency should be viewed as the inevitable revolution of youth development institutions in South Africa post 1994. Its establishment heralds a new era for youth development. It will continue to do the work of the previous institution in a co-ordinated and more integrated way.
Its structure provides for a better governance and management structure than the former institutions, enhancing the possibilities for planning monitoring and evaluation.
Finally, as we establish the National Youth Development Agency, we should commend the National Youth Commission and Umsobomvu Youth Fund for the work they did and the millions of lives on which they impacted.
We should thank those structures for the genuine attempts they made to implement an important and difficult mandate without any models to learn from. But it is time for us to move on and learn from that experience and establish a better institution. Thank you very much. [Applause.]