Speaker, His Excellency the President and Deputy President, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon members, and guests; let me borrow these words from Mary Macleod when she said:
For society to attempt to solve its desperate problems without the full participation of young people is imbecile. We have a powerful potential in our youth and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends.
Hon Speaker, consistent with this year's rallying call of job creation by the President of the Republic, my message to the House today and to the country at large is: Let us give priority to our youth for skills development and job creation. The future prosperity of our country is dependent on the amount and quality of the development investment we make towards our youth today, for they are the custodians of the future.
We all know as South Africans that the history of the youth in this country is the history of struggle as well as triumph against adversity, success against all odds and victory over oppression. Every generation of the youth has had to go through these historical moments as evidenced by the youth struggles in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and, now, in 2011.
Each of these decades emphasised different issues reflective of the specific challenges of the time. These struggles have impacted on the achievement of the democracy and development that we enjoy today in our country.
The biggest challenge facing the youth of today and in this decade is that of unemployment. Notwithstanding the fact that unemployment is the number one challenge facing the nation as a whole, it is the youth who are to a large extent affected by it.
The National Youth Development Agency has estimated in their latest report of 2009-10 that about 73% of all the people who are unemployed in the country are young people. The magnitude of youth unemployment has, in turn, exacerbated the associated problems such as high levels of poverty, an increasing rate of underage and youth pregnancies, alcohol and drug abuse, crime and, in recent times, increasing numbers of child-headed households.
Given our national aspiration to establish an inclusive, sustainable development which in the long term will be a knowledge-based economy, it is imperative that we focus on the youth and their skills development. In addition, according to the Human Sciences Research Council reports, international studies and benchmarks identify the following reasons why we need to focus on the youth.
Firstly, the youth make up a significant proportion of the global population. Secondly, their increasing interconnectedness means that they comprise significant local, regional and national constituencies.
Thirdly, creating livelihood opportunities for young people helps break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. Fourthly, with human capital as the trading currency, there are long-term socioeconomic benefits for improving health, education, and social capacities of young people.
Fifthly, five of the eight Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, speak directly to improving the situation of young people. Lastly, failure to invest in young people can lead to their involvement in crime, violence and other social ills.
On the positive side, studies by the Human Sciences Research Council, HSRC, again have shown that the current cohort of South African youth is the best- educated ever, they are the healthiest sector of the population, they are technology savvy, have high hopes and aspirations for the future and they can influence national and civic life.
Let me take advantage of this platform and plead with the youth of my hometown in Ermelo, Mpumalanga, for a ceasefire. [Applause.] The challenges are immense, but they will not go unresolved. The frustration of unemployment is dire, but it will not go unresolved. We cannot afford to go back to the violence that embroiled our town in the early 90s between the ANC and what used to be known as the Black Cats.
Fellow young people of Ermelo, agree to a ceasefire, allow pupils to go to school; refrain from burning public infrastructure and the properties of councillors. Stop looting from shops because, whilst we are faced with these huge challenges as young people we cannot resort to unfashionable methods of resolving issues. [Applause.]
Your agitation and impatience is absolutely justified, but the President has declared 2011 a year of job creation. You have rightfully sent us here - call it a generational mix - to represent you, and I therefore want to assure you that we will, in our oversight role, monitor very closely all government departments to see whether indeed they align their programmes with the job creation imperatives as outlined by the President.
As the ANC, we have historically recognised the important role of the youth in society and development. The ANC has always served as a school and training ground for the youth to become future leaders in society. It has equally taken the lead in championing issues of youth development in terms of policy and practice, both as a movement and through its youth league and allied youth formations.
It was through our movement's various resolutions and advocacy over the years that the National Youth Development Agency, NYDA, was established and the National Youth Policy was developed and adopted as government policy, as well as the National Youth Service Programme.
There has been wide speculation of corruption levelled against the National Youth Development Agency in relation to the World Festival of Youth and Students. Indeed, every cent must be accounted for and those found wanting, in so far as how monies from the public purse were spent, must face the full brunt of the law. This will be in line with the five key priorities of the ANC to curb crime and corruption.
Let me just briefly educate the youth of the DA on the history of the festival itself and what it sought to achieve. The festival movement grew out of the ashes of the Second World War when thousands of youth and students assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1948 - the year when apartheid was actually born - to proclaim that the youth would never again allow the horrors of fascism to terrorise the world. Since then, the festival has blossomed into an ongoing forum for progressive youth from all over the world.
The festival is today a space to exchange ideas and share experiences of the struggle against war, imperialism - which the DA will never understand - racism, sexism, corporate globalisation, attacks on workers right to organise and the destruction of our environment.
During this festival we assert our rights to education and employment, racial gender and economic equality, land reform and the independence in self-determination of nations. As a space for dialogue and understanding, the festival reflects the diversity and richness of the international youth and student movement and its demands. I wish, therefore, to inform the youth of South Africa that despite the criticism and many other challenges, the festival did accomplish the objectives it sought to achieve. [Applause.]
It is important to note also that most of the recommendations which emanated from the festival are now being streamlined within various government programmes for implementation. The ANC government has now prioritised skills development and job opportunities for the youth in its job creation drive.
Some of these important programmes include the expansion, capacity improvement of the Further Education and Training, FET, colleges with investment of over R12 billion that was announced in the 2010 budget speech, last year. This is aimed at increasing the number of young people who are studying vocational subjects in order to skill them in preparation for the demands in the labour market.
For the benefit of the youth, we welcomed a number of policies and programmatic announcements that have been made, among them that from this year, students in Further Education and Training Colleges who qualify for financial aid will be exempted completely from paying fees. [Applause.] I'm sure that does not bode well for the DA.
Those students who are registered at a public university in their final year of study and who qualify for funding from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, will receive a loan equivalent to the full cost of study, which is the full fee and necessary living expense.
Most importantly we are delighted by the provision that if these students graduate at the end of the year, the loan for the final year will be converted to a full bursary and they will not have to repay the amount. [Applause.]
In addition, there has been a strong focus by the Ministry of Higher Education and Training to streamline and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Services Sector Education and Training Authorities, Setas, as well as increasing investment in the National Skills Development Strategy in a manner that targets youth development.
We must support the development and implementation of the government-led campaign to reduce the impact of alcohol and drug abuse as announced; and all the programmes to establish sport and recreational facilities in poor and rural communities must be achieved.
We recognise the magnitude of the problem relating to skills development and youth unemployment faced by the country, but we applaud all efforts being taken by government through these interventions. It bears testimony to the premium and priority we as a country place on the development of our youth and in particular to prepare them adequately through skills development for the world of work.
We salute the efforts of government to intensify its campaign of paying Small and Medium Enterprises, SMMEs, on time within 30 days. We call upon other government departments to follow suite in the Re Ya Patala initiative of the Department of Public Works in order to ensure that small businesses, especially those that are led by young people, do not collapse, thereby defeating the objectives of integrating young people in the mainstream of the economy.
We call upon government and the private sector as well to intensify the internship programmes to avert a situation where the number of unemployed graduates escalates.
Speaker and hon members, in the end though, we have to accept that skills development for the youth and addressing youth unemployment is not the responsibility of government alone. We have to mobilise all sectors of society to contribute and participate meaningfully in these efforts as this is a national issue. Working together in developing our youth and creating jobs for them, indeed, we can do more.
To conclude, I call upon the youth of South Africa to once again exercise their democratic right to vote in the forthcoming local government elections. Vote because Oliver Tambo would expect you to. Vote because Mama Bertha Gxowa would expect you to. Vote because Walter Sisulu would expect you to. Vote because Ruth First would expect you to. Vote because Beyers Naude would expect you to. Vote to preserve the legacy of President Mandela. I thank you. [Applause.]