Minister Jeff Radebe: Launch of Youth Month 2016

Speech by Minister Jeff Radebe, Minister in The Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, on the occasion of the launch of Youth Month 2016

The Deputy Minister for Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Administration, Mr Buti Manamela;
The Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth Development Agency, Mr Khathu Ramukumba;
The National Youth Development Agency, Transitional Board of Directors and Executive Managers;
The Ward 39 Councillor Mr Chris Vondo;
From the June 16th Foundation, Mr Oupa Moloto;
Representatives from Public Sector, Private Sector and Civil Society;
The Community of Soweto;
The media;
And last but not least the masses of the youth of South Africa present;

It is with a great sense of honour and privileged to be here today, in this beautiful part of Soweto, on a month that we honour those who sacrificed their lives for the freedom and democracy that each and everyone of us enjoys today, to launch the National Youth Month programme. This year’s June Youth Month commemoration marks a milestone 40 years since the students braved the might of the apartheid State to demand their rights as equal citizens of the country. In doing so, they heeded Moses Kotane’s call, who declared that:

“At this hour of destiny, your country and your people need you. The future of South Africa is in your hands and it will be what you make of it”.

These marching orders to the youth of our country echoed the famous declaration by the African patriot, Frantz Fanon when he declared in his much celebrated quote in that:

“Each generation must discover its mission, fulfil it or betray it, in relative opacity.”

Soweto will forever remain amongst others, as the symbol for the struggle for justice, freedom and democracy. This world famous township became the theatre of the confrontations between the viciously armed apartheid State and the brave youth of our country.

It is important that as we forge ahead to build a new democratic State, we do so with the full consciousness of where we come from as a people. As we recount the heroic tales of Anton Lembede, Nelson Mandela, Robert Sobukwe, Steve Biko, Walter Sisulu, OR Tambo, Solomon “Kalushi” Mahlangu, Chris Hani, Winnie Mandela, Charlotte Maxeke, Sophie Du Bryn and countless others, heroes and heroines of the struggle, this is to inspire us towards accelerating the very vision for which they dedicated their lives. And today, we stand here tall because we stand on the shoulders of these historic giants. It would be a travesty of justice to the various generations to whom we owe our freedom and democracy, if we dare fail to fulfil our part of this historic mission to transform the lives of all our people.  It is tribute to these many gallant fighters for our freedom that we launch this youth month programme and pledge our unwavering commitment to youth development. 

As many of you will recall; amongst those first to pay the most supreme price in the 1976 Student’s Uprising was young Hector Pieterson, whose lifeless body became the symbol of resistance against the system of apartheid as he was rushed to hospital in vain. Everywhere in the country the protests spread like wildfire.

Following the students’ protests that had spread in Mamelodi, young Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu had to skip the country into exile to join the armed struggle under the banner of the ANC armed wing Umkhonto WeSizwe, the MK. Many others joined other organisations such as the PAC aligned APLA. This was the greatest influx of the throngs of people going into exiles as they escaped State repression, determined to equip themselves with the military and other leadership skills that would help usher in democracy in South Africa. A year later on the 11th June 1977, Solomon “Kalushi” Mahlangu returned to participate in the 1st Anniversary commemoration of June 16 Students’ Uprising. However, he and his two comrades were accosted by the security forces resulting into a gun battle where civilians were killed by stray bullets. A protracted trial ensued that in turn led to him facing the gallows. After he was sentenced to death, international calls for clemency failed to save him from the gallows. It was as he took those final steps towards the gallows that he declared those chilly but brave words:

"Tell my people that I love them and that they must continue the fight, my blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom, aluta continua!”

These historic acts of bravery further inspired the youth of the decade of the 1980’s, whom the former President of the ANC OR Tambo called the “young lions”, as they responded to his calls to render the apartheid State ungovernable by brave acts of defiance against the apartheid regime.

In 1994, we attained our political freedom and thanks to these gallant fighters of our freedom from different generations and epochs of political struggle. Since 1994, the youth of our country have been in the forefront of the institutionalization of youth development. When the youth speak, the democratic government listens. It was at the request of the youth that the National Youth Commission and the Umsobomvu Youth Fund were constituted. Again it was at the request of the youth that those two institutions were collapsed into the National Youth Development Agency with a view to implement a comprehensive Integrated Youth Development Strategy. The aim was and still remains the comprehensive integration of youth development into the mainstream economy.

Unlike under the apartheid State, the youth today must consider the government as an ally to their development. The laws of the country encourages democratic resolutions of all problems. The Constitution remains the bedrock upon which the new democratic State is built.

It is for this reason that all of us must never agree or hoodwinked into anarchy and violence as means of communicating our ideas. The meaning of freedom must be empowering our youth with skills and economic opportunities so that the dignity to which the Constitution alludes must be the lived experience of all the people of our country. In the same breadth, it must be the youth who define this mission as Frantz Fanon declared.

We believe as you do so, you will be unanimous in declaring that violence and the burning of university and school property cannot be in your name!

Your generation have a duty to yourselves and to posterity, to utilise the doors of learning and culture that have been opened by the democratic government. Where you as the youth have said the doors of learning are not wide enough, as in the “hashtag fees must fall”, we as government have again listened as we will always do and helped flung them far more open.

Accordingly, the President of our country convened a meeting with all University Vice Chancellors to discuss none other than the demands that you as the youth had made to the democratic government. I must commend many of you in how you conducted yourselves during those protests around university fees. Most heartening, was to see some of you actually cleaning up the lawns in Pretoria following the march to the Union Buildings. And this only spoke of a very responsible leadership on whose shoulders we can have confidence you will carry on the mantle bestowed on you by history of leading our country to socio-economic equality and prosperity.

As government we commit ourselves towards ensuring the economic emancipation of young people through their integration into the mainstream economy. The recent report by Statistics South Africa on Vulnerable Groups gives a glimpse on the magnitude of the challenges we face with regards youth development in South Africa. When we say over 60% of our population are young people below the age 35 years, that must reflect in the development programmes by government, the private sector, NGO’s and all development institutions in our country. We adopted the National Development Plan, the NDP, not just as government but essentially as a programme by the whole people of South Africa, and it is therefore the people’s development programme. As government, we lead in implementing the Medium Term Strategic Framework, which is in fact the programmatic implementation of the NDP.

The Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Buti Manamela, is charged with youth development, and has overseen the conceptualisation of a youth focused development programme that is integral to the NDP Vision 2030 and that being the National Youth Policy 2020. As the youth of our country, we encourage you to seize with both hands the democratic opportunities now availing to you, to utilise your enormous genius and energy to help transform our country.

Amongst the highlights of the National Youth month programme to be spearheaded by the NYDA will include the following:

  1. A National Youth Service Workshop in Pretoria tomorrow on the 2nd June.
  2. The SAB Kickstart Roadshow in Soshanguve on the 6th June
  3. The Youth Summit in the Northern Cape at Khara Hais
  4. The Career Expo at the same venue of Khara Hais on the 11th June which will also see a visit by the Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
  5. The Youth Brigade will be kick started on the 13th June with comprehensive messaging on the benefits to be accrued by the youth.
  6. The main June Youth Month programme will be the June 16 Commemoration at the Orlando Stadium on June 16. The President constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) specifically to ensure that we have a dignified all-inclusive 40th Anniversary commemoration this year on June 16 in Soweto.
  7. The NYDA will convene youth awards on June 17 to highlight excellence in youth development and leadership.
  8. There will be a launch of the NYDA branch as well as a career expo at Alfred Nzo on the 21st June
  9. There will be a conference to make follow-up on progress on the “hashtag fees must fall” protests to be held in Cape Town on 22nd June.
  10. There will be an anti-HIV campaign in Durban on 24th June
  11. And very importantly also there will be the launch of the Interstate Bus Lines Entrepreneurship Programme in Mangaung on the 25th June.  

This June Youth Month comes at a time when there are glaring racism cases and attacks on foreign nationals which remain a serious indictment against our efforts at social cohesion and nation building. At the same time it is important that while the youth exercise their right to protest, they should not reverse the gains made by the democratic government, fought for by the youth of 1976 amongst others. Government notes that a number of economic challenges still exist that are due to a weak global economic landscape. Young people are hardest hit by the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

The 40th commemoration of the 1976 Students’ Uprising affords us an opportunity to reflect on the services provided by government for the youth such as; black and women students are now in the majority in our universities, and NSFAS has supported more than 1.5 million poor students. TVET College enrolments have increased from 657 690 (2012) and planning to reach 725 000 headcount enrolments this year. NSFAS budget for 2015/16 is R4.094 billion for university study loans and R2.205 billion for technical and vocational training college bursaries.

This is supplemented by recovered funds and donor allocations, which further increases the total budget of NSFAS to R9.5 billion for the allocation of estimated 205 000 university student loans and bursaries and 200 000 TVET college bursaries. The Small Enterprise Finance Agency has financed over 10 000 SMME to a tune of over R274 million. About 96% of youth-owned enterprises supported are women-owned with the majority operating in the informal / micro enterprise sector. The National Skills Fund in partnership with government departments and post school institutions has funded various opportunities for youth in resolving energy challenges and taking advantage of the ocean economy initiatives. 

The National Youth Policy 2020  seeks to address areas that impact on the youth development agenda; economic participation and transformation; education, skills development and second chances; including reproductive health care and anti-substance abuse; nation building and optimising the youth development machinery. The National Youth Policy also proposes fundamental ways on how to mitigate against challenges facing the youth.

The Integrated Youth Development Strategy (IYDS) is being developed with the aim of putting in place concrete programmes to tackle the challenges faced by young people. The IYDS is an implementation plan of the National Youth Policy 2020 and it is also a mainstreaming and coordinating platform for youth development. I know many of you would ask the question how can the National Youth Development Agency help solve youth problems in the country. The fact is the NYDA is funded with over R400 million, which is insufficient to cater for the developmental needs of the millions of our unemployed youth.

We took the view that says youth development cannot happen successfully as a stand-alone pre-occupation but as integral of all development programmes in our Country. It is for this reason that we plan to have all government departments absorbing the youth into their development programmes at all three spheres of government, nationally, provincially and at the municipality levels. The Integrated Development Plans in local municipalities must speak to youth development and factor in the fact that over 60% of our population are young people as well as the statistics recently released by Stats SA showing the magnitude of the challenge on youth development. It is for this reason that we have adopted the route that says the National Youth Policy 2020 must be implemented through the Integrated Youth Development Strategy (IYDS) that seeks to mainstream youth development in all spheres of government.

Among others the Integrated Youth Development Strategy seeks:

  • To facilitate programmes aimed at job creation and economic security of youth through government, business and civil society organisations;
  • To coordinate youth focused programmes across all sectors of government and industry in order to align resource allocation;
  • To encourage youth entrepreneurship. 

Furthermore, to catapult youth development to the epicenter of government work, the Presidency established the Presidential Youth Working Group (PYWG), which spearhead mainstreaming and integration of youth development into government policies, programmes and the national budget.

The National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) is a primary source of information on youth development matters across the country. It has the responsibility to initiate, design, coordinate, evaluate and monitor all programmes that aim to integrate the youth into the economy and society in general. Funding must come from various other institutions as the NYDA or any other single institutions cannot conceivably absorb all the youth who require development assistance in our country, hence the importance of the Integrated Youth Development Strategy.

Essentially, the NYDA pilots youth development programmes and help as main pointer on the comprehensive programmes that both government and the private sector can adopt to ensure we effectively respond to youth development challenges. In the last five years the NYDA has achieved the following:

  • Over 2 million youth participated in the career guidance programme
  • Over 11 000 youth participated in technical skills programme and Youth Build (National Youth Service Programme)
  • Nearly 2 500 youth received grants (programme started in 2013/14)
  • Nearly 2 000 young people received micro loans (this programme was changed to grants from 2013/14)
  • Nearly 200 000 youth entrepreneurs were supported through (Market linkages, voucher, mentorship, Entrepreneurship Development Programme)
  • Over 200 000 Young people supported through life skills programme, the job preparedness programme and job placement programme
  • Nearly 4 million Young people received information youth development through NYDA access points
  • Over 11 600 jobs were created and over 12 500 were facilitated for young people
  • Over 16 000 young people participated in the NYDA Matric Rewrite programme
  • Over 1000 youth received the Solomon Mahlangu Scholarship Fund

Another important milestone that is a cause for celebration is the establishment of the Youth Development Institute of South (YDISA). This partnership with the University of Johannesburg will enable cross-cutting research into youth development matters. Key objectives of YDISA include conducting youth development research, to develop youth development programmes and projects, develop youth models for the youth sector, lobby and advocate for the youth sector and so on.

It is imperative that, you as the youth of our country, you participate actively in all relevant levels of decision-making processes because it affects your lives today and has implications for both your individual  future and the future of our country as a whole.

As I conclude, allow me to re-iterate the assertion that our freedom was not free. Solomon “Kalushi” Mahlangu and many heroes and heroines paid the ultimate price for our freedom and democracy. The Youth month provides an opportunity to commemorate their sacrifice whilst reinforcing the role that all of us must play to spearhead youth development today. They struggled so that we could exercise our freedom to cast our vote to further the development of our country. Allow me to take this opportunity to call on all our youth to cast their votes during the Local Government Elections on the 3rd of August 2013 as proclaimed by the President. This will be fitting tribute to those who died and to those who still live, those who fought for our freedom and democracy.

On our part as government, we will accelerate youth development in order to realise the vision of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous society! In this Youth Month whose programmes we launch here today, there will be many activities spearheaded by the NYDA to champion youth development. The highlight of this month will be the June 16 National Event that will be right here in Soweto and will be graced and addressed by the President of our Republic, President JG Zuma. You can get more information on the Youth Month programme from the NYDA.

Allow me to thank profusely all those who have been behind the successful convening of this Youth Month launch.

We call on all young people to carry forth the idea of One Africa, free of xenophobic and attacks and one Country, free of inequality, poverty, unemployment, racism and sexism. The task of building a united Africa and South Africa is in our hands!

Finally, I thank you for being here today and working together we successfully champion youth development; and move South Africa forward. The future is yours to build or to betray!

I thank you!

Enquiries:
Mmabatho Ramompi (DPME)
Cell: 076 480 3513

More on

Share this page

Similar categories to explore