Thank you, House Chair and hon members.
When I saw the photos being flashed here, I remembered an election in another country, where there were images of people which were being used in adverts for an election campaign. We discovered that the people in the pictures didn't know that they were going to be used for adverts. [Laughter.] It is very possible that those who submitted photos were thinking that they were dealing with a labour broker so that they could get jobs! [Laughter.]
The discussion today is about the remembrance of the contribution made by the young people of this country to liberation, and the brutal repression they suffered as they attempted to liberate themselves from the yoke of apartheid.
It is a call to the nation for all of us to put our heads together to look for solutions to the problems which beset our young people today. It is in this context that I hope that, as we commemorate 16 June and engage in the activities of Youth Month, all of us are going to put our political egos aside to work towards finding solutions for challenges which face our young people. The problems facing our young people are not theoretical; the problems facing our young people are not imaginary; the problems are real. These are the problems that every South African should be concerned about.
With the current economic situation in the world, many countries are struggling to create sufficient jobs to feed their nations. It is, therefore, important that all of us - politicians, labour, business and religious leaders - work together to try to find solutions to deal with these problems which are facing the world, and not only us.
It does not help us to stand on rooftops and shout at each other. Those shouts will never create jobs for the young people. We do not depend on photos. Those of us who stay in rural areas, townships and informal settlements, day in and day out, are faced with a stark reality. As people wake up in the morning, they do not know where to find food. When they come back in the evening, they do not have shelter. [Interjections.]