Thank you, hon Speaker. I don't think we are getting across just how serious the problem of youth unemployment is. We need to create 4,7 million jobs for people under the age of 34 years, while the Deputy President talks about 20 people hired here and six people hired there. He just repeated some of the marginal programmes that the President announced in his state of the nation address. We could, of course, look to Nedlac and their Youth Employment Accord for ideas on creating youth jobs. They talk about public sector brigades and youth employment set-asides. These are weak ideas to tackle our biggest challenge.
The bottom line is that the National Development Plan says that we need to lower the cost of hiring young people. It talks about active labour market policies like the youth wage subsidy. Last week the Minister of Finance retabled the youth wage subsidy, but he called it the youth employment tax incentive, Yeti. It is structured in exactly the same way as the youth wage subsidy. But Cosatu responded to this Budget by saying, and I quote: "We reiterate our rejection of the Youth Wage Subsidy as an incentive for employers to hire young people."
So, hon Deputy President, why is the Minister of Finance the only member of the Cabinet talking about this Yeti? How does the Deputy President think the policy will now be implemented, when Cosatu has spent the past three years blocking it? Is it because the youth wage subsidy is like the mythical Yeti? We all hear that it exists, but nobody ever sees it! [Laughter.]