Programme director
Premier of the Eastern Cape, Ms Noxolo Kiviet;
Ministers, Deputy Ministers and MECs;
Members of the National Youth Development Agency National and Provincial Boards;
Sponsors from the Private and Public Sector;
Our special guests the Youth; and
Ladies and gentlemen:
I am honoured by your invitation to participate in this stakeholder forum held under the theme: “Youth action for economic freedom in our life time”.
Our government finds these engagements very enlightening and fruitful in providing feedback from the community and in turn providing us with the opportunity to communicate government programmes.
We are therefore thankful for your attendance and invite you to discuss your concerns frankly and openly so that we may take forward any of the outstanding issues - it is only if we work together that we can achieve much.
I have, here present with me, Ministers, Deputy Ministers and MECs of various departments, to listen and interact with you on common solutions to problems affecting the youth.
As you are aware, this year marks the 35th commemoration of the youth uprisings of June 1976 against apartheid education.
Today we commemorate June as Youth month not only to remember those who perished during these uprisings but also to celebrate the tenacity and spirit of the 1976 generation.
Their stand against injustice has set the bar high for the youth of today and must encourage you to actively participate in the determination of your future and that of generations to follow.
Today, 35 years on, we are symbolically marking the end of the youth cohort of 1976; now that we all enjoy the freedom that they paid for with their lives, we have to reflect on the strides we have made in promoting youth development and, also, how the youth can participate meaningfully in their own development.
To throw my penny’s worth into the debate, I would like to highlight three challenges that both the youth and government must confront in the quest for youth development.
First, is the misconception that the youth is a separate societal sector that must be targeted specifically, on their own, in order to address the challenges facing youth. A sub text of this approach, also, is that youth empowerment is equivalent to youth development.
While it is common-cause that government must have targeted interventions towards empowering and developing the youth, these interventions must always be cross-sectoral in their approach. The youth constitutes the majority of our population and we cannot, therefore, speak of youth development in a vacuum.
In other words no single state Department is more important than the other when it comes to youth development. When the Department of Transport budgets for a Bus Rapid Transport system it must strategically plan for the transportation of youth to education institutions; Eskom’s provision of electricity enables the youth or learners to study and, grants have proven to go a long way towards alleviating poverty.
From this perspective therefore, we discuss youth development in a holistic manner that goes far beyond issues of empowerment by hook or crook. The government must plan comprehensively to ensure that in all areas of its programmes it targets the youth in order to build a sustainable future.
For this reason, the state must ensure that it is institutionally geared towards supporting the youth by granting the youth access to development services throughout the service value chain and across all spheres of governance.
Since the 2009 reconfiguration of government the state has committed itself to one (1) objective to ensure a better life for all, five (5) priorities areas and twelve (12) outcomes; in all of these youth development must remain a significant feature.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The second aspects of the challenges in our approach towards youth development are that of unemployment and under- education of our youth. As it stands statistics shows that unemployment is the highest amongst young people andclose to 2.8 million of fully able youths between the age of 18 and 24 are neither employed nor in an institution of learning.
Given this high number, and mutual dependence between employment and education, we have tasked the Minister of High Education and Training, through the support of the Human Resources Development Council, to develop a Human Resource Development Strategy to ensure that we tackle this problem in an intertwined and well co-ordinated fashion.
This strategy will amongst others:
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Systematically strengthen the skills and human resources base of our country;
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Align education and training to our over-arching human resources development strategy;
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Improve cross-sectoral alignment to ensure that all players in human resources development from government, civil society sector, organised business, organised labour, professional bodies and research communities reinforce and complement the work of others.
This Human Resources Development Strategy is central to the developmental state’s agenda and the goals of building a prosperous, stable and cohesive society.
A process is also underway to align this strategy with the New Growth Path, with the focus on prioritising skills that will support economic development and the growth agenda of the country. Focus will be given to priority skills such engineering.
Focus will also be given to improving affordable access to Further Education and Training, establishing mechanisms to encourage life-long learning through career development in workplace programmes and reviewing the Sector Education Training Authority (SETA) plans. The Deputy Ministers of Economic Development and Higher Education and Training will elaborate further on these matters.
In this regard I would like to encourage you to take up the various education options that are open either through further education and training colleges (FETs), vocational training, NATED technical studies or higher education.
Unlike the 1976 generation you are spoiled for choice and free to pursue knowledge to your heart’s content. From our part as government we will do all we can to ensure that no deserving student who wants to study is excluded from education on the basis of lack of finance.
We have made finance available for bursaries to FET colleges and are improving the financial aid scheme for universities. As announced in the State of the Nation Address those who are in their final year will, from this year, study for free if they complete their studies on time.
We believe strongly that this will encourage students to concentrate on working hard and passing well without having to worry about finances.
Youth empowerment programmes for those who are outside the education realm are also important for the government.These are geared towards ensuring that we inculcate an entrepreneurship and co-operatives culture amongst the Youth, with adequate support from the Youth Fund and other Development Finance Institutions.
Support is also provided for small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) development and small scale agriculture especially for rural youth. The National Youth Development Agency will elaborate on the work they have been doing together with The Presidency to ensure that the youth is empowered to participate meaningfully in the economy; the new growth path also has programmes targeted at this area.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Let me turn to the last but by no means least important aspect of youth development which relates to the health and wellness of the youth. As the old adage goes “in any economically depressed situation the only form of recreation available is alcohol and sex”. This is why it is no surprise that the rate of infections in HIV, AIDS and other STIs is higher among the youth. In truth most of the social ills perpetuated by the youth are direct manifestation of the fact that youth lack extra-mural and recreational facilities
This is not to suggest that the lack of these facilities is solely responsible for social deviance; for that would amount to reductive a reductive, factually inaccurate conclusion.The point it to show how we need to cover enough ground where possible, the better to minimise some of the negative conditions that afflict out youth.
Our strategies on Youth development must therefore include a social cohesion component that will focus on nation building through heritage, sports, arts, culture and the Moral Regeneration Movement (MRM).
We should urgently roll-out social infrastructure and amenities in our communities so that we resource youth with community halls, libraries, sports and other cultural amenities as part of our efforts to ensure that youth is preoccupied with building teams, the performance arts and other such programmes.
But the youth must also not relegate the responsibility to shape their future to others.
We must inculcate a culture amongst the youth for doing things for themselves and volunteering their services in the community. Those who have been provided with opportunities of higher education should, for example, contribute to literary, education and tutorship programmes for schools within their communities.
Youth must develop networks, club and community development forums to strategically engage government and other sectors of civil society. Nothing should be done for the youth without their participation.
Ultimately we all want to see more youth being active participants in local communities, municipal councils, legislatures and parliament. As we say; “The past we inherit, the future we create.”
Programme director, I thank you and look forward to listening to the deliberations this afternoon.
I thank you.
Source: The Presidency
