Deputy Chairperson, hon members, the week after next, on Youth Day, we will remember the hundreds of students who died on June 16, 1976, in the anti-apartheid cause and many others. We owe them a debt of gratitude that a debate like this is now possible in a free and democratic South Africa. [Interjections.]
But once we have paused to remember, we must move on to debate the issues facing young South Africans today.
Now, Mr Tau's very eloquent important history lesson has comprehensively explained the starting point for many of the problems that we face as a country. It was apartheid. But every member of this House agrees on that. It is impossible therefore for me to debate something we all agree on. I could debate this government's failures to deal with those problems in the past 16 years, but I am not going to do that. Instead, I want to look at the solutions going forward, specifically how the ANC's alliance partners are standing in the way of those solutions.
I don't think that anybody would disagree that every other issue raised in this House today must pale in insignificance in the face of the fact that 3,1 million young South Africans are walking our streets, unsuccessfully trying to find work. Sixteen years later, the most lasting effect of apartheid social relations is seen in youth unemployment.
Two out of every five people under the age of 34 are unemployed. All in all, 3,1 million youth are without work, which is 73% of the total number of unemployed people in our country. The job crisis in South Africa is a crisis of the youth, not labour brokers, Mr Tau - because 3,1 million young people dream of getting a job through a labour broker, but they cannot find one at all.
It doesn't have to be like this, and you will not be surprised to hear that the DA has a policy proposal that will help to create hundreds of thousands of jobs for South Africans. We call this policy a "wage subsidy".
You may be surprised to hear, Deputy Chairperson, that the ANC government agrees with this policy proposal. In this year's state of the nation address, President Zuma announced that his government would be introducing it.
Then, in the Budget Speech, Pravin Gordhan gave more details on the policy. He predicted that it would create half a million new jobs in three years. He said that a discussion document setting out further details of what he called a "youth wage subsidy" would be tabled at the end of March. The DA, the economists, the academics and civil society enthusiastically welcomed this new openness to fresh ideas to tackle youth unemployment, because a youth wage subsidy won't result in lower wages and provides formal and regulated employment. Even South Africa's second biggest trade union federation, Fedusa, welcomed it, saying: As Fedusa, we were very impressed with the proposed wage subsidy. We think that's a progressive initiative by government.
Why then, if we have a new policy that will help fight youth unemployment that government, the opposition, civil society and Fedusa agree on, has Treasury still not published the document as they said they were going to two months ago?
The unfortunate answer is: because the ANC government tripartite alliance partners are involved in a power struggle for control of economic policy and political influence. They oppose the wage subsidy simply because it does not come from the Minister that is from their side of the Cabinet.
Their opposition is political, because they simply reject the idea out of hand by saying they have always objected to the wage subsidy. They are not even willing to engage it on its merits or drawbacks.
So, Deputy Chairperson, the National Treasury's Youth Wage Subsidy Policy is now the victim of a fight for political influence between Cosatu and their leftist Ministers, with the ANC and their centrist Ministers. And while they fight, 3,1 million young South Africans remain unemployed. Based on the Finance Minister's projections, the implementation of a youth wage subsidy would create around 17 000 new jobs per month. Every week it is delayed, it costs us 4 000 job opportunities.
Ninety years ago, William Butler Yeats wrote:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.
The alliance partners cannot ask 3 million young South Africans to wait while they squabble - the centre cannot hold. They cannot hold up policies that will create jobs for the youth. The pressure will become too much. If Cosatu continues to block the youth wage subsidy, the centre cannot hold.
Earlier this week, my colleague Lindiwe Mazibuko and I wrote to the President asking him to intervene in this policy deadlock. While we sincerely hope he does, we doubt he will because he seems compromised by the fact that Cosatu helped him reach the Presidency. [Interjections.]
Further on in the same poem I quoted earlier, Yeats wrote:
The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
President Zuma cannot allow Cosatu's passionate intensity to continue to undermine Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's conviction to implement this progressive policy. If he does, the centre will surely not hold, and the alliance will split.
However, Deputy Chairperson, the day it does will be a happy day for unemployed South Africans. On that day, the ANC will be free to implement universally accepted policies, such as the youth wage subsidies that will help to create thousands of jobs for young South Africans. Thank you. [Applause.]