The government cannot be ashamed, because we understand the problems that are faced by our people. [Interjections.] All of us are striving to put systems together to help the young people get what they want. We believe that the only way to ensure the prosperity of this country and the building of a successful nation is to invest in the education of our children and of young people. Therefore, the government has taken several steps and has increased the participation of young people in the education system.
We are quite aware that the more we train young people, the more we flood the job market, which is not ready to absorb them because there are no jobs in the economy. However, that should not stop us from making sure that we create sufficient skills through the FET colleges, the state-owned entities, SOEs, and the private sector, especially now that we are embarking on a roll-out of infrastructure. We believe that this infrastructure roll-out will be able to create sufficient skills through training programmes. The roll-out will also be able to create jobs, although not sufficient to wipe out the backlog of unemployment.
That every month the youth have to depend on the child support grant is not something they can be proud of. That young people always have to depend on their parents or grandparents for support is not something they can be proud of. It is important for all of us to look for solutions that will create not only entrepreneurs, but also a skilled workforce that will be able to participate in the economy of the country.
As we speak here today during this Youth Month, young sportspeople in our country are preparing themselves to participate in the London 2012 Olympic Games. We wish all South Africans to give them support, because we hope that with the support of the nation we will be able to encourage them to excel. [Applause.] We would like to call on all our young people - students, unemployed and the working youth - to participate in sporting activities which are being championed by the Department of Sport and Recreation. This will ensure that we have a healthy nation that is competitive and ready to compete with the rest of the world.
In this information age, we hope that young people are going to take advantage of the availability of opportunities in the ICT sector to participate in the innovation and creativity that is required to take this economy forward.
We would like to call on young people to participate in the Square Kilometre Array, SKA, activities which are going to unfold, since South Africa has been awarded the SKA project. We believe that the SKA award is going to create many opportunities for research and innovation, and the participation of young people in the scientific world.
We believe that our young people need to participate in politics to ensure that they equip themselves with the knowledge of running the country and its political affairs. However, we are aware that in this process there are those who will seek to exploit the problems of our young people for their own political gain. We believe that our young people should not allow themselves to be used by those who want to up the stakes in their political game by riding on their backs. [Interjections.]
We call on our youth not to engage, in the course of the protests that are taking place in the country, in activities that destroy properties that have been built by government or individual citizens. We would like our young people not to be tempted to be used by way of their staying away from school because somebody else has a problem somewhere which has nothing to do with the school. We would like to call on student organisations from all political affiliations to support the call to strengthen our education system to ensure that our young people are not used in the streets of our country by those who want to achieve political gains other than those which are supposed to help young people. [Applause.]
We in South Africa participate in all the programmes of the United Nations, the African Union and international organisations, and in bilateral relations with other countries in programmes which are going to assist our youth to participate equitably in the international affairs of young people. We believe that all of us working together - the government, the private sector, NGOs, and co-operatives - stand a better chance to roll back the wheel of poverty and inequality, and create jobs for our young people. I thank you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.