occasion of the Youth Parliament, National Assembly
20 June 2007
Madam Deputy Speaker, The Honourable Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde
Madam Deputy President
Esteemed members of Parliament
Fellow South Africans
Thank you for inviting me to be present with you today. Our Deputy President
has spoken very eloquently about the challenges facing the youth of our country
and about the future of young people in our country.
I would like to begin by reminding us not to forget our past even as we
create a better life for all. Let us draw inspiration from those who struggled
valiantly against apartheid. I want take us back to that recent era, which some
of our most notable poets have spoken of.
Sipho Sepamla in his poem "To Whom it may Concern" speaks of identity and
its loss in urban apartheid South Africa. He combines in his poetry the laws
and the effect of those laws on our people and he writes of a South Africa that
each and every one of us can be immensely thankful we no longer live in:
"Bearer
Bare of everything but particulars
Is a Bantu
The language of a people in Southern Africa
He seeks to proceed from here to there
Please pass him on
Subject to these particulars
He lives
Subject to the provisions
Of the Urban Natives Act of 1925
Amended often
To update it to his sophistication
Subject to the provisions of the said Act
He may roam freely within a prescribed area
Free only from the anxiety of conscription
In terms of the Abolition of Passes Act
A latter-day amendment. In keeping with moon-age naming
Bearer's designation is Reference number 417181
And (he) acquires a niche in the said area
As a temporary sojourner
To which he must betake himself
At all times
When his services are dispensed with for the day
As a permanent measure of law and order
Please note
The remains of R/N 417181
Will be laid to rest in peace
On a plot
Set aside for Methodist Xhosas
A measure also adopted
At the express request of the Bantu
In anticipation of any faction fight
Before the Day of Judgement."
We must remember and thank all those who fought apartheid and who gave
selflessly of their lives in order for us to live in a South Africa that is
free, one that has a Constitution instead of laws legalising racism and
criminalising our people. And we must dedicate ourselves in their memory to
ensure that we are not doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.
We have come through over 13 years of remarkable political stability, marked
by high rates of economic growth and a significant increase in social
expenditure. But we cannot be complacent. Your work as a youth parliament needs
to address whether what you are doing really matters and what contribution
youth can make to:
* halve poverty by 2014
* halve unemployment by 2014
* promote youth inclusion to the labour market
* redress the huge gaps between the first and second economies
* promote an inclusive non-racial, non-sexist South Africa?
Why these yardsticks, because these are the commitments that we have
collectively made to the people of South Africa? We know that to meet these
goals we must implement the effective policies we have developed; we must have
efficient, effective and sensitive service delivery. We need to focus our
attention on implementation and delivery. This we know. For this is not about
what government needs to do for you rather it is about what we do together and
in partnership to create a better more prosperous South Africa.
So in this month of the youth when we reflect on the enormous contribution
the youth of our country have made to our liberation, we need to ask: what is
the role and responsibility of the youth in the second decade of our
democracy?
With an understanding of the challenges identified by our Deputy President
comes the obligation to do something about them. This is not about waiting
around for government to take the initiative. The youth of 1976 did not wait
around for someone else to bring them freedom, they took the initiative and
fought for it. Let us reclaim that spirit, let us say with vigour no to
poverty, and unemployment and drug abuse and violence against women and the
girl child.
President Thabo Mbeki in his 2005 Freedom Day speech in Durban stressed the
importance of purposeful volunteerism: "In this Second Decade of Freedom, let
us work together to mobilise all our people and continue to engage in the
programmes of Letsema and Vuku'zenzele so that we do not hear stories about
some of our children, some of the poor and the elderly in our communities being
neglected, being hungry and destitute when our African culture tells us that
"umuntu ngumuntu ngabanye."
Certainly, the inclusion and the well being of our youth is a high priority
for this government. In today's world, education is essential to well being.
Educated, engaged youth are indispensable to present and future nation
building. To that end we are active in the implementation of policies in the
education and training sector to ensure that our commitment to opening the
doors of learning is realised. And we are investing heavily in the education,
health and well being of our children and youth.
This we do because the future well being of our country requires, no
demands, that in the here and now we assist the young people of South Africa to
access quality and affordable education.
For South Africa to continue to assert its rightful place in the
international constellation of nation states, for us to continue to exert our
influence in the region, in Africa and in the world, we need our youth to be
politically engaged, and politically literate. We need them to be educated
global citizens, willing to sit at the political and economic decision making
tables in Gaborone as well as London, Cape Town and Tshwane as well as
Washington and Beijing.
As South Africans from all walks of life we can justifiably be proud of two
important values; Ubuntu and Letsema. The former speaks to the importance of
humanity and the latter of working together. Throughout our struggle for
national liberation and through the past 13 years of democracy we gave meaning
and we brought alive these uniquely South African principles. Hundreds of
thousands of our people gave selfless of their time and many thousands made the
supreme sacrifice for freedom and democracy. Today we must continue to build on
this spirit in our fight against poverty and underdevelopment.
I want to challenge the youth of our country to rediscover and reclaim the
spirit of Ubuntu; humanity towards others, a sense that I am what I am because
of who we all are and the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects
all humanity.
By combining the many complementary meanings of Ubuntu and Letsema, we are
in fact saying that we are human by virtue of doing for others. This is the
essence of our National Youth Service Programme. This is the spirit we must
continue to encourage in all sectors of our society. This is the spirit that is
necessary for the creation of a socially cohesive and inclusive South
Africa.
In the spirit of Ubuntu and Letsema, I want to issue four interrelated
challenges to this Youth Parliament:
1. You all know very well the state of youth in our country, what are you
going to do about it?
2. We have strong policies among the best in the world; can you come up with a
plan of action that can be implemented and will define the youth of today, just
as the Soweto and related uprisings defined the youth of 1976?
3. Can you definitively answer the question your own children will ask you in a
decade's time, what did you do to create a better South Africa?
4. Are you sensitive to the particular challenges facing female youth and youth
with disabilities, and how will you address these specific challenges?
Karl Marx once said the point of philosophy is not only to interpret the
world but to change it. So in a similar vein the point of the youth Parliament
is not only to reflect on the state of the youth of our country but to change
it. Are you willing to look the next generation in the eye and say with
confidence "We made a difference"?
Wally Serote in his poem "The Actual Dialogue" speaks of the kind of
dialogue in diversity we can no longer entertain. Contained in this poem is the
antithesis of the kind of dialogue that all of us including the youth need to
sustain today:
"Do not fear Baas.
It's just that I appeared
And our faces met
In this black night that's like me.
Do not fear
We will always meet
When you do not expect me.
I will appear
In the night that's black like me.
Do not fear
Blame your heart
When you fear me
I will blame my mind
When I fear you
In the night that's black like me.
Do not fear Baas,
My heart is as vast as the sea
And your mind as the earth.
It's aright Baas,
Do not fear."
Today, we no longer appeal to the other to see us as human, we no longer
blame our minds for our oppression under apartheid. The corollary of this is
that now we have the opportunity to be the agents of our own upliftment and
this we do through recognition of historic opportunity and connection to
community to create an inclusive and socially cohesive South Africa. And we
know full well that our continued prosperity as a country will depend on the
extent to which we all give selflessly of ourselves. What is needed today, more
than ever, is the revival of a culture of people helping other people, for no
other reason except that they are human.
Thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
20 June 2007
