Hon Deputy Speaker, Cope wishes to pay tribute to the life of Asemahle Ntsabo from Mbekweni in Cape Town. She was a victim of child brutality and abuse, and was murdered. May her soul rest in peace.
Kusapho lwakhe sithi akuhlanga lungehlanga, thuthuzelekani. [To her family we say they must accept what has happened as fate; may they, be comforted.]
Hon members, it is a fact that South Africa as a nation comes from a very dark past. We are the product of racial division. This alone has contributed immensely to the socioeconomic divide confronting the majority of South Africans. Our youth are affected most by this venom of economic division. Cope admits that our society is extremely fractured, which is the legacy of the two nations economy. Many South Africans, because of the above, live in poverty and with unemployment.
We must indeed change the ownership patterns of the wealth in this country in a spirit of national reconciliation and unity for all. The lives of the black majority must change, and this we must do in solidarity, black and white. Also, all the youth of our country, black and white, must take hands and fight this divide, using one voice.
However, the approach of the ANC Youth League on economic matters is foreign to our democracy and does not represent the collective thinking of the youth of South Africa. It is a divergence from O R Tambo's call for a shared vision in building a nonracial, nonsexist South Africa. The ANC Youth League message is racist, and represents the divisive attitude of Hendrik Verwoerd.
I attribute the challenge of youth unemployment not only to the apartheid regime, but also to the ANC government. The ANC is responsible for today's bad policies. Amongst others, there are the lack of a clear education policy vision and inconsistency in policy choices.
Also, the private sector is lazy, and comfortable with business as usual. There is no investment in the economy of the future and in youth innovation. They do not support good business initiatives from the youth.
Speaker, the youth only hope that the National Youth Development Agency, NYDA, has created laptop and restaurant entrepreneurs, people who do not create work but depend on tenders. We have not made the uTat'uMaponya and uTat'uMantuntu type of entrepreneurs. The youth of today are obsessed with wealth and money, not service to the people, and the ANC created that culture in this country. The majority of South African youth continue to be used for wrong reasons, for destruction in public protests and political battles.
It is said that more than 90% of the productive land transferred to the ownership of the people is no longer producing food for the nation, because of a lack of skills and of support for small-scale farmers. We need an agricultural revolution of young farmers - youth that are skilled in farming. Government must review its policy on land distribution. We must adopt a transfer that introduces partnerships with existing skilled farmers for the land that is transferred.
We must optimally use the capacity of the SA National Defence Force in training a youth brigade for a skills revolution. Let's draw the unemployed youth into the army, not only for national security, but also in the war against skills shortages. Our Further Education and Training, FET, colleges are not ready for this new struggle in our country.
In conclusion, in his book The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Karl Marx has this to say:
Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves ...
We, the generation of 2012, must make history by celebrating the decision of the Constitutional Court on the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union, Satawu, that if you burn up a street, break property, intimidate other citizens and block their right to protest, you will be punished. That, Chairperson, is true democracy in action. Our Constitution must be celebrated.
Long live the spirit of Siphiwe Mthimkhulu! Long live! Long live the spirit of Andries Tatane! Long live! Thank you very much. [Applause.]