His Excellency Honourable President Jacob Zuma
Honourable Deputy President, Kgalema Motlanthe
Honourable Minister, Collins Chabane
Honourable Minister, Trevor Manuel
Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Appropriations, Mr Mshiyeni Sogoni
Chairperson Ms Chichi Maponya and CEO Mr Miller Matola of BrandSA, and other Board Members Present
Chairperson of NYDA Mr Yershen Pillay
Honourable Members
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen.
Let me also join the millions in prayer in wishing Tata Madiba, to good health.
In the few coming weeks we will be commemorating the historic gathering by our people, when in June 26th 1955 ,they gathered and adopted the Freedom Charter which one of its pronouncements says ,“South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white” and the preamble in our constitution also states that “ We the people of South Africa, recognise the injustices of our past; honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land; respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity it is therefore befitting that the theme for this Presidency Budget Vote is “South Africa is a better place (today) than it was in 1994.
Honourable Members
The Presidency has a responsibility to lead the country in nation building, and ensure we are united in our diversity, have social cohesion and create non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa. Amongst other programmes and activities is the building of the country’s brand. This mammoth task was given to Brand South Africa, and also a framework was established for greater corporation and coordination among the other agencies that are responsible for marketing our country namely, Proudly SA and Tourism SA.
In our efforts to ensure that South Africa brand is among the top 20 country brands across the world we have undertaken a number of initiatives. However the past year has been marked by moments of hope and despair. We have witnessed much senseless killings and violence afflicting many of our vulnerable in our society, during this time, our international reputation was negatively affected and this in turn impacted on our national sense of pride and social cohesion, minimising opportunities and reducing our capacity to attract investment and create much needed employment.
The shift in the balance of political and economic power to Asia and other emerging markets saw Brand SA focus its activities more closely on Africa and other BRICS countries. This is strategic considering that BRICS members will account for over 60% of global growth within the next three years.
The year 2013 began with strong and successful programmes which took advantage of important events to position South Africa; these include AFCON 2013 campaign, World Economic Forum programme in Davos, the WEF recently held in Cape Town, the Mining Indaba and the BRICS Platform in Durban. All these events were utilised for the positioning and profiling of SA to the domestic and international media and public. The BRICS Summit provided an opportunity for South Africa to showcase itself to the world as the powerhouse of a rising continent.
Brand SA also released its Project Thrive (Investor Perceptions) research results for this year, which contains positive findings for South Africa. The study indicates that while Mining & Quarrying and Hospitality & Tourism remain the most prominent sectors associated with South Africa. However, there has been a significant increase in associations with other sectors in the SA economy among international investors, in particular: retail trade, construction, financial, insurance, real estate, electricity, gas & water supply, Post & Telecommunications.
Brand SA’s Play Your Part initiative continues to make great strides in encouraging responsible citizenship, pride and patriotism, amongst our people.
In contributing to the national discourse about eradicating gender based violence, Brand SA hosted a men’s dialogue focusing on the role of men in the fight against gender based violence, and change attitudes and stereotypes in society as part of building a non- sexist society, Deputy President Motlanthe was the key note speaker, at the event.
In the coming year Brand South Africa will focus a lot of effort on the African continent, reaching out to South Africans in the Diaspora, including mobilising them to register and participate in voting, as we change the law to accommodate them.
Honourable Members
South Africa’s stature and role in the international arena has thus grown significantly in the last two decades since the advent of democracy. This stature and role has been demonstrated in various ways. For instance,
- South Africa has been twice voted in to serve in the United Nations Security Council in a matter of a few years.
- recently, South Africa hosted a successful COP17 Conference in Durban, and
- was invited to join the BRICS group of nations. In March 2013 South Africa hosted the Fifth BRICS Summit.
Additionally, the focus of South Africa’s international engagements will be the African Continent , South Africa is using its membership of forums like the IMF, the World Bank, G20, as well as the UN and the AU, to promote the African agenda of development, growth and greater prosperity.
Honourable Members,
The only way to ensure success in our country’s endeavours is to move together as a united people. South Africa, as with all the rest of Africa, has the advantage of a youthful population, we must therefore harness this demographic dividend window, because when we invest in our youth we would have invested in our future.
OR Tambo once said; ”A nation that does not invest in its Youth, is a doomed Nation”- Among one of the Presidency’s mandates is to mainstream youth development in the country, through the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) and also ensure that it creates an environment for young people of our country to realise their potential. The NYDA has suffered a negative image among young people and had lost confidence to deliver on its mandate in the eyes of many South Africans. However, it is important to note that a lot of good work has been done by the agency and a lot of young people have benefited from its service. This however, does not discount the fact that some other things could have been done differently. The NYDA is now coming full circle and as the country commemorates the 37th anniversary of Soweto and related uprisings young people are looking up to the agency to provide much needed relief to realise their potential.
Youth month will furthermore focus on job creation, skills development and youth empowerment. The call over the month will be on youth and all sectors of society to identify their roles in curbing the economic and social issues that youth face in the country.
While the youth of 1976 fought for freedom and the creation of a democratic state, our government recognises that the youth of today have a completely different struggle which is that of substance abuse, over and above the fight for economic emancipation, access to quality education, unemployment and HIV/AIDS. It is therefore fitting to have the Youth Month theme for this year as: “Working Together for Youth Development and a Drug Free South Africa.”
Youth development remains a priority on government’s and NYDA’s agenda. This year saw the signing of the Youth Employment accord. The Youth Employment Accord is a viable and meaningful approach to youth employment creation with a deliberate focus on skills development and entrepreneurship, Minister Ebrahim Patel will announce on the Model of Implementation and how it’s going to be funded.
In an attempt to further advance youth development, the President is establishing a Presidential Youth working Group to afford him an opportunity to interact with the relevant stakeholders in the youth development space, this is essential, as it will allow young people to provide strategic advice to the Executive on how to implement youth development interventions in our country, and to ensure the development of the youth agenda.
In a recent meeting held with youth led organisations, the youth presented the following “BIG 5” Issues as key strategic priorities for youth development:
- Education and Skills Development – This will entail intensifying skills development for the youth, especially those who have dropped out of school and are unemployed
- Youth Economic Participation – emphasis will be on job creation, particularly entrepreneurship
- Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention – priority will be given to actions aimed at combating alcohol and substance abuse as well as prevention of violence against women and children.
- National Youth Service and Social Cohesion – young people will be encouraged to volunteer their services to their communities so that they contribute to social cohesion, patriotism and nation building.
- Professionalisation of Youth Work – focus will be on ensuring recognition of youth work as a profession
The above priorities will be presented to the President for him to lead and champion. It will be supported by the IMC, Secretariat of Deputy Ministers, Technical Committees of Officials, who will ensure implementation of agreed decisions, the Youth Employment Accord, mainstreaming of the youth agenda, and also PME developing a monitoring tool. The Cabinet will receive regular reports and the President will convene the PYWG annually to receive progress and to engage with youth leadership. Also SADC Secretariat will be establishing a Youth Development Desk, where each country will be reporting to, on progress made to respond to challenges on Youth Development. Africa, the region and South Africa are faced with the youth bulge. Out of the 1 billion population of Africa, 60% young. The different role players will be encouraged to plan jointly and pool resources in addressing the identified priorities. Most importantly is the need for each of the role player to commit in implementation so that many young people can be reached and impact can be made.
The newly appointed board of the NYDA has stated that one of its main goals is to restore credibility to the NYDA. The NYDA’s new vision, mission and values speak directly to a sense of responsibility to the youth of South Africa. The new vision is to be a credible and capable developmental agency for South Africa’s youth, this is in line with the National Development Plan (NDP),which singles out young people as key to development of the country, hence we see that the 2009-2014 National Policy is coming to an end, and the Intergrated Youth Development Strategy is under review. The new mission is to mainstream youth issues into society and to facilitate youth development with all sectors of society.
The NYDA has shifted the core business away from giving out loans towards Education and Skills Development. This new plan will therefore focus on tailor made interventions for job preparedness and placement and a focus on scholarship provision for those who excel in schools.
The NYDA’s highly successful flagship programmes such as the Youth Build Programme for out-of-school youth and our Career Guidance Programme will be intensified. Over 1500 young people will be engaged in the Youth Build programme for the financial year 2013/14. The NYDA plans to reach at least 700 000 young people with Career Guidance services.
The NYDA will continue with efforts directed at economic participation offering a range of products, programmes and services to young entrepreneurs in need, albeit as a secondary focus.
The NYDA will be offering grant finance combined with business development support and mentorship. The grant programme will start from R1 000 to a maximum of R100 000 worth of support for any individual or youth cooperative. Due to the financial constraints of the Agency just over 37 000 young entrepreneurs will be supported over the next financial year. The IDC and SEFA made a financial commitment to support the growth of young entrepreneurs, totalling R3 billion over the next five years, This will go a long way in facilitating the growth and development of young entrepreneurs in South Africa, the NYDA will therefore serve as a conveyor belt for the screening and recommendation of young entrepreneurs to access the loan finance offered by the IDC and SEFA
Furthermore at the end of April 2013, the NYDA concluded a peer counselling programme in partnership with SANCA where young people were trained as ambassadors for substance abuse campaigns.
Mister President ,we welcome your intervention in addressing substance abuse in Eldorado Park, to clamp down on drug dens known as “lolly pop lounges” it is indeed yielding significant progress in fighting the scourge of substance abuse. We are however aware that the situation in Eldorado Park is symptomatic of issues facing many communities in the rest of the country. Black townships in particular are highly affected.
Our Government’s focus for the Youth Month this year is on a holistic youth development agenda with specific focus on the fight against substance abuse. Alcohol and substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking is a global
phenomenon, and South Africa is no exception. This has serious implications for millions of South Africans because alcohol and substance abuse contributes to crime, gangsterism, domestic violence, family dysfunction and other social ills. Moreover, it has been reported that drug abuse in South Africa is twice the world norm in most cases. In particular, youth have borne the brunt of abuse with the emergence of local drugs such as Nyaope and Kubar, that originated in Pretoria townships of Soshanguve, Atteridgeville and Mamelodi, and quickly spread to the rest of the townships such as Chartsworth in Durban where its called “Sugars” or “Whoonga” in Mpumalanga is known as ‘Pinch”, in Cape Town the use of the “Tik” drug is prevalent.
Street drugs like nyaope and tik are destroying the futures of South African youth and ruining the lives of their parents. When they should be in school, addicted children are scavenging for money to finance their habits, they steal items such as water taps, gates, copper, aluminium, food, clothes, money in the house whatever they can lay their hands on just to get “HIGH”. This dangerous drug, nyaope is made from a cocktail of ingredients such as rat poison, heroin, dagga and antiretroviral (ARV’s), and it’s usually sold in small parcels at R30 a portion. Nyaope has not been classified as an illegal drug but the Department of Justice is moving to amend the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act to ensure charges can be laid for possession and dealing of the drug, charges will rely on the dagga and heroin commonly found in nyaope.
Research has shown that our children go to an extent of infecting themselves with the HIV virus so that they can be able to access the antiretroviral drugs from the health facilities, therefore it is very disturbing that as a nation we will loose the fight against HIV and Aids, because of the new infections that are done deliberately in order for our children to feed their drug habits.
As government we also recognise that alcohol abuse among young people is a serious threat, statistics reveal that South Africa has one of the highest level of alcohol consumption drinker in the world, raising the legal alcohol drinking age to 21, limited alcohol advertisements, zero- tolerance for drunk - driving and public drinking are some of the proposals to be considered by government
Our government recognises that the drug problem is complex, and requires decisive and collective national action. Government has been at the forefront of fighting the scourge of substance abuse through various national initiatives and programmes. Given the seriousness of the situation it has convened and also implementing
- The Anti-Substance National Plan of Action led by the Department of Social Development, is a collective effort towards a South Africa that is free of drug abuse. This Master Plan commits government and sectors of society to work together to reduce the demand and supply of illegal drugs through a wide range of coordinated action from national to local levels.
Honourable Members
A drug free generation is everyone’s responsibility. Government is committed to rid our society of substance abuse which is the cause of numerous social ills, however help is needed from parents, civil society and faith-based organisations and communities in tackling this scourge. We urge parents, relatives and other community structures to play a role in raising awareness and to provide support to those affected. Communities are called on to report those involved in the trade of illegal substances so that we can fight and beat the scourge together.
We must do this as a nation, as a people, and defeat this demon, and continue to make South Africa a better place to live in. You Decide: Say “No to Drugs” You Decide: Say “No to Alcohol”
I thank you.
