Hon Deputy Speaker, your Excellency the President and the Deputy President of the Republic, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon Members of Parliament...
... angitsatse lelitfuba nginibingelele nine bekunene, nine bakaLaZidze, nine lenacedza Lubombo ngekuhlehletela. [... let me take this opportunity to greet you all, ladies and gentlemen, you of LaZidze, nine lenacedza Lubombo ngekuhlehletela (praise name).]
Let me remind hon members in this House that the majority of young people and South Africans voted for the ANC during the 2009 elections. In 2010, the country was hit by service delivery protests, but in 2011 South Africans and the youth voted again for the ANC in their majority. [Applause.] This then tells you that South Africans and the youth are not fighting the ANC. They are fighting for the fast-tracking of service delivery.
I want to talk to the hon Adams here, who talked about a lost generation, and define to her what a lost generation is. "Lost generation" refers to young persons who are unemployed and therefore are vulnerable to situations of unemployment. I think we can define the hon Adams as a lost generation because she thinks that unemployment is the government's problem. It should be the effort of all of us; we should all come in and play ball. [Applause.] She has lost an opportunity to address us and tell us what she and her party can do to assist with fighting the scourge of unemployment amongst the youth.
Mr President, in your state of the nation address you gave a programme of action on which your government will embark to better the lives of our people. Your Excellency, you reminded us of your government's interventions that are responsive to the plight of the youth and rural women.
Notably, you spoke on the National Rural Youth Service Corps as a programme that helps to train and develop young people as agents of change in their rural communities. This programme has enrolled about 11 000 young people in various training programmes. The youth is trained in, among other things, animal production, farm management and various other fields. Some of these young people have started their own enterprises and others have been absorbed in various departments. I've heard some say this is just paying lip service to programmes designed to skill the youth. The records are very clear. There are young people who can bear testimony to the success of these particular programmes. These are but a few of the successes that your administration introduced in the fight against the scourge of unemployment and poverty.
Plans for rural youth hubs should also be hailed as they will contribute immensely to the betterment of the livelihood of the youth in rural areas, where poverty and unemployment are more pervasive.
I heard you call on the business sector to afford young graduates from further education and training colleges opportunities to enter the labour market. This, Mr President, is a genuine call that should be made by all of us who are advocates of change. Without any doubt, youth unemployment is one of the toughest challenges facing all of us, and which warrants collective efforts from government and the private sector. The plight of South African youth needs to be confronted without any opportunism and political expediency. It is therefore hypocrisy of the worst order for the opposition to come out and say: "You have not said enough", when they know that they should be calling on the very same business sector that votes for them to absorb unemployed young people all over the country. [Applause.]
We should desist from advocating initiatives that are open to many interpretations and abuse. It is perhaps more important to set the record straight, that no one scheme or model alone will solve challenges of youth unemployment. We are therefore saying it now - and we will continue saying it - that the implementation design of the youth wage subsidy proposal, as introduced by the National Treasury, is but one of the instruments that needs thorough understanding. There is a need to guard against the displacement of the older worker. The envisaged youth incentive scheme should have training, skilling and placement at its centre.
A country that does not invest in education will never develop. We call upon the youth and women continuously to pursue further education and training as well as higher education. One icon once said: "Ignorance will be the downfall of the nation". I echo his sentiments, and quote from the Holy Book, the Bible, which tells us that: "My people perish from a lack of knowledge". It is therefore incumbent upon you as young people to equip yourself with the necessary skills and knowledge to be ready to face life's challenges and opportunities.
Entrepreneurship should be encouraged as another means of breaking the intergenerational poverty trap and creating jobs. We call upon the National Youth Development Agency, like any other public entity that should be held accountable, that its outcomes should be in direct proportion to the resources injected into it. Its financial injections into the entity should lean more towards youth empowerment initiatives than procurement, staffing and other institutional arrangements. South Africa's youth unemployment knows no political affiliation. As such, funding and other initiatives should also reach ordinary young people who are not in political circles. We are, however, encouraged by the NYDA for providing start-up capital to young South Africans who want to pursue entrepreneurial paths. Since its inception, the NYDA has created about 73 000 jobs. It has offered around 33 000 loans to the value of R97 million in the three financial years since its inception. To ensure the sustainability of such ventures, coaching and mentoring of these emerging entrepreneurs should be emphasised. The burden of youth development should be shared by not only a few departments. Our plea is that each and every government department and its entities, parastatals, agencies and beneficiaries of government funding, should be role-players in advancing youth development.
Credit should be given where it is due. As such, we applaud all stakeholders who continue to place youth development at the centre of their programmes of action. It cannot be fair that whenever someone smells flowers the question asked is, "who is dead?", not realising that there is a flower garden out there.
Allow me, Speaker, to conclude with the words of one famous icon, who said: "We know well that none of us acting alone can achieve success". I take his words further and say, let us, for a second, try to imagine a country where all citizens, young and old, are informed about and engaged in all the major issues that affect their lives, a place where adults and young people are together at the table debating, grappling with problems, crafting solutions and jointly deciding on how resources should be allocated, a place where young people have equal opportunities and sustainable livelihoods. That is the South Africa that each one of us envisages living in and one that we should build towards. Thank you.