Chair, the first issue is a very serious judgment call, to suggest that they failed miserably. Of course, the National Youth Commission would have failed miserably at job creation because they had no programme money; it wasn't part of their remit.
In respect of the Umsobomvu Youth Fund, the record speaks for itself, but whatever resources we have in the state can never get out there to meet the demand. In fact, every bit of analysis on youth unemployment reflects that one of the major problems is that young people don't even know where to find the information to get assistance.
The information asymmetry is a first hurdle, and the second one is to get from where they are to where the help is. It arises in respect of information and in respect of employment, entrepreneurial support, etc, which is why a very high percentage of young African men and women have never had employment in their lives.
It is a fundamental problem, and I think that institutionally, if you ask bodies such as the National Youth Development Agency to have offices in every nook and cranny in the country, you are setting them up for failure. This is because the overhead costs then supersede what they can spend on programmes.
Rather, we have to work together to ensure that, through the Thusong centres, information and assistance are available so that there can be online advice from a Thusong centre to a centralised point, and we can try and deal with an issue in that way.
I think that, as Members of Parliament, we should understand what the limitations and constraints of these institutions are and set out to help them rather than throw stones at them. Youth unemployment is the biggest challenge; it's the longest shadow that history casts over democracy in this country. We must set our minds to this issue and try and do it together. Thank you very much.