Deputy Chair, hon members, I think one is quite privileged to be participating in a debate of this nature. This is a very important debate because without such a debate we, as Members of Parliament, would be negating, in fact, our own fundamental responsibility of shaping the future of this country. Today's debate is based on a very important theme that reads: Youth Day: Young people at the forefront of uniting our people in the quest to dismantle all apartheid social relations.
Of course, in dealing with this, it would be important for us to reflect on what Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela said when he was reflecting on the Reconstruction and Development Programme of the country and its implications on young people, and I quote: "The youth of our country are valued possession of the nation. Without them, there can be no future."
I think this particular quotation is also premised on a view expressed by the former president of the ANC, Comrade Oliver Tambo. When Comrade Oliver Tambo was making a point on the role of young people in shaping the future, he expressed the notion that a country that did not take care of its young people was a country with no future.
I think these are profound statements that, on their own, reflect that young people are central to the development of their country. At any point, they are located at a strategic point of directing the future of that particular country. Therefore, when one looks at the theme, which speaks about the dismantling of apartheid social relations, it also means that as we participate in this debate today, we need to ask ourselves a fundamental question, and that is: What are these social relations that we as a country and its young people need to dismantle in moving forward and shaping a new South Africa?
For obvious reasons, we need to look back and say that for us to be under these constructed social relations, there is a particular origin. That origin, which leaves us with these constructed social relations, is based on a particular philosophy - the philosophy of H F Verwoerd. This is because H F Verwoerd, in advancing his philosophy of apartheid, was to say that at the centre of it there was no need to teach a black child mathematics because there was no point, as that child would never be able to use that particular tool.
That philosophy then laid the basis to construct a particular society. It is through that philosophy that you then had young people being dislodged from the mainstream of development. Without science and technical knowledge, there was no way that young Africans in particular, and blacks in general, would be able to participate in the development of their own country.
In further deepening that particular philosophical posture, Verwoerd declared that one way of further constraining these young people was to ensure that they subject them to a particular line of thinking, which is that of seeing themselves as subjected to white people. Verwoerd's philosophy of apartheid also subjected young people to a thinking that stipulated that for them to survive, they needed to see a white person as a superior person within society. To accomplish this, Verwoerd introduced what we call language barriers through the introduction of Afrikaans in schools for black people in general and Africans in particular.
This led to the resistance of 1976, when young people said, "No way, ours is not about these social relations as constructed by the philosophy of Verwoerd. Ours is about a country that is united, nonsexist, democratic and takes into account the values of all those who live in it. Therefore we shall resist the kind of systems that are being put in place to subject ourselves to the kind of situation that we are put into."
It is through these relations and the advancement of this particular philosophy that even young people in the rural areas were subjected to old laws that were brought into place even before they were born. Those laws defined the rural areas as labour reservoirs for the mines and farmers, with those who laboured not having any rights. This meant that young people who were African, young people who were defined as blacks in South Africa, had no opportunities at all. As a result of the lack of opportunities, lack of skills, lack of knowledge and lack of empowerment they were then unable to participate in the construction of the South Africa they lived in.
Therefore, it is important for me to say this because the theme will then give rise to the questions: What is it that we need to do in order to dismantle these social relations? What is it that we need to undo that was done by the philosophy that was introduced to the African people at that particular point?
Of course, there is a response that has been provided by the democratic breakthrough of 1994, which, in the main, placed young people at the centre of development. That response placed young people at the centre of the reconstruction of our country, and at the centre of uniting this country. Furthermore, it placed young people at the centre of ensuring that in whatever way we democratise the country, at the centre of that process must be the beneficiation of anything for the young people and how they should be able to do those things. We can only find that in the Reconstruction and Development Programme, as adopted by the government of South Africa after 1994.
That is why there is the expression that says "the youth of our country is the valued possession of the nation. Without them, there can be no future." It is on the basis of this that programmes developed for the benefit of young people over the past 16 years have seen so much progress, development and change in the lives of young people in this country.
We have, of course, also seen government coming forth in 2009 and asking how to begin to further place young people at the centre of development. We have also seen, in terms of the five priorities that government has put in place, that one of the key pillars that informed the government's programme was education. With regard to education, we saw government splitting the former Department of Education into the Department of Basic Education and the Department of Higher Education and Training.
At the heart of that was the aim to dismantle what Verwoerd did and ensure that we reconstruct our country and the education system to respond to the needs of our young people. Through Verwoerd's philosophy, we could not have had young people emerging as artisans. We could not have young people emerging as doctors. We could not see blacks in general and Africans in particular coming out as engineers and so forth. So the reconfiguration of the former Department of Education is in response to that particular philosophy. The aim is to dismantle it in order to ensure that our young people are then channelled towards skills are geared to ensure that they are empowered when it comes to issues related to science and technology.
Government has committed itself and money that has been set aside to empowering, reconstructing and strengthening the capacity of further education and training, FET, colleges. It is through these that we will be able to then regenerate the skills of young people for them to acquire artisan skills and so forth. This will enable young people to be self- employed and to get into the mainstream of the economy and become employable.
The other thing that we have talked about in terms of the five pillars is the issue of decent jobs. If one looks at the question of decent jobs and how these decent or indecent jobs have impacted on young people, one has to ask oneself the following question: Who are the people that are seriously affected by the labour brokers? It is the young people, because it is these people who are desperate and who want to get employment and so forth. Through the labour brokers they then get abused, enslaved and their pride taken away.
As a result, the question about this pillar of the creation of decent jobs and the call to revisit the constructiveness of labour brokerage is in response to and in protection of the interests of young people. Furthermore, it is also an instrument of dismantling the social relations wherein Africans in particular and blacks in general were always seen as labour providers and not as job creators and so forth.
One other pillar, which one cannot leave the podium without referring to, is the role of young people in terms of health. Young people today are at the forefront. We have seen the campaigns and the programmes that have been developed by the National Youth Development Agency around healthy lifestyles. It is these young people who understand better what a healthy body means in relation to job creation, the development of an economy, the sustenance of a society, and the construction and development of that particular society.
Part of the issues that young people in this country are geared towards, informed by this particular pillar, is the mobilisation of our people around healthy lifestyles. This is due to the fact that they are at the receiving end when it comes to issues relating to unhealthy lifestyles.
Deputy Chair, I can see that you are going to stop me. But let me just state that it is these young people who have been at the centre of the reconstruction and development of this country. The readmission of South Africa into world sports is due to the contributions of young people. Today we are united as a nation. We are enthusiastic and we are looking forward with great anticipation to being World Cup winners. We could not have done that if it were not for the young people of this particular country. As we speak today, the final 23 who make up the World Cup squad are, in actual fact, young people of this particular country, and they are going to make us proud. Thank you. [Applause.]