T Didiza: Northern Cape Provincial launch of the National Youth
Service

13 September 2007

Programme Director
Honourable Premier
MECs present
Members of the Legislature
Executive Mayors and Speakers of Municipalities
Councillors
Senior government officials
CEOs of public entities
Invited guests
Ladies and gentlemen

I would like to start of by greeting the people about whom we have gathered
here today, the trailblazers of the National Youth Service. Heita basha, heita
Phambili nge skills development, phambili, forward with youth development,
forward.

As Vuyo Mbuli always says about the trailblazers on his Morning Live Show,
wubhoso, National Youth Service (NYS), wubhoso.

It gives one great pleasure to be here this morning to witness yet another
great stride being taken on the road to skills development and youth
empowerment our country. As we have said right from the beginning when we
launched the NYS in Botshabelo in Bloemfontein in April this year, the National
Youth Service is not only about providing skills to the youth. Through the NYS
we are building a cadre of young people who are prepared to put ahead the
interests of their country. We want to develop in the young people that we are
inducting into the NYS today, an ethos that says I will put my country first
and develop it to its fullest potential. As the former President of the United
States of America (USA), John Kennedy once said: "Do not ask what your country
can do for you, but rather what you can do for your country." That is the type
of ethos that we want to see developed in all our NYS participants. Yes, we
will teach these young people how to lay bricks, paint, plumb and weld. But we
also want them to be proud South African citizens, ready to put their all in a
national effort to improve their country.

Ladies and gentlemen, this provincial launch today is a first step on the
long road to satisfying our country’s great need for artisans as well as
providing our youth with an opportunity to get started as employed people as
well as being entrepreneurs.

During the state of the Nation Address in Parliament earlier this year,
President Mbeki indicated an urgent need for the Expanded Public Works to be
stepped up a gear to provide greater leadership to job creation and skills
development efforts of government. We have tried to carry out the marching
orders. We launched the NYS at Botshabelo in Bloemfontein on 14 April this
year. A lot of ground has been covered since that launch, hence this provincial
launch today.

Honoured guests, our government assets, particularly our buildings, give us
a particular leverage to be used to create employment for the youth. We are
aiming for a skills revolution and empowerment for our youth. The young people
who are being recruited to this programme will also be enrolled with our
further education colleges and those industry colleges as artisan trainees so
that at the end of their national youth service they would have given their
service to their country whilst gaining skills for themselves as well.

The event today provides a beacon of hope for the youth of our country. It
is also a clarion call for them to pick themselves up and make use of all the
opportunities that are being availed to them for self-improvement and that of
their country.

It is very important for all spheres of government to note that our Expanded
Public Works Programme (EPWP) is just one component of government's strategy to
overcome unemployment and poverty. It is a national framework to be implemented
by all public entities through their strategic objectives, revenue base and
capital budgets. We are focusing on using public sector spending so as to
achieve developmental outcomes in respect of reducing unemployment and poverty.
If implemented effectively, the impact could be significant, as public sector
spending constitutes 25% of Gross Domestic Product.

Service delivery, poverty alleviation and job creation are paramount
objectives of government. The National Youth Service is one of our strategies
to deliver on these objectives. The maintenance and provision of infrastructure
are some of the tactics. These areas of activity will create work opportunities
for the youth that has been selected, but they will also help improve the
skills base of the province.

Our focus on the construction sector and allied sectors takes full
cognisance of the immense potential of the industry as a creator of job
opportunities. Under the impact of growing investment and the EPWP, employment
in the construction sector has risen greatly. With construction output set to
double in the next ten years, the industry has the potential to generate
thousands of jobs by 2014, contributing greatly to the goals of accelerated
growth. Many of those who will be employed, will need to be skilled.

Indeed our country is in a grip of a great skills shortage and need. Our
country is in the throes of a massive infrastructure development and
improvement programme. With growth rates in construction spend of around 10%
per annum, the highest that it has been in the last 30 years, construction
spend is in fact growing at a higher rate than Gross Domestic Product. However,
there are many challenges that need to be tackled in a range of public and
private sector partnerships to further unlock infrastructure bottlenecks and to
create capacity and skills.

The challenges in the built environment are huge and need urgent attention
as the deadlines are so tight as well. Even as the government accelerates the
infrastructure development, the demographic profile of registered built
environment professionals is a long way from reflecting the demographics of the
country. As the economy begins to boom with upward trends predicted well beyond
2010, there are increasing demands for professional services, and the pool of
skills represented by built environment professions should increase
accordingly. However, current trends, with specific reference to the built
professions, indicate that this important skills base is in decline, with very
few new entrants compared to the large numbers who are leaving the profession.
That is why is vitally important to continuously and urgently replenish the
human resources in the built environment with young, enthusiastic and
determined young people. This initiative could not have come at a more
appropriate time in our development.

I want to acknowledge the work that has been undertaken by the province in
recruiting and selecting this first batch of NYS participants that we are
inducting today. It takes a lot of work and dedication to set up the systems
and get the process going at great pace to meet the targets, especially tight
targets like those that have been put for this first intake of NYS
participants. Within the next couple of months we will all need to account on
how far are we gone with this programme. That is why I am congratulating this
province, which has got such a vast geographical stretch, that it has
successfully coordinated the setting up of this programme.

Fellow South Africans, I firmly believe that with the launch of this
programme, we are on course to meet our targets. All three spheres of
government are forever looking for ways to better co-ordinate this programme
and I believe that the uptake across the board can only improve from now on.
Our collective effort and dedication will see us through the challenging tasks
we are facing as a country. I would like to congratulate these young people who
have been selected for this programme. I would like to sound a word of caution:
this will not be a hunky dory experience all the way. There will be challenges,
there will be problems. But as someone has said, it does not matter how many
times you fall, what matters is how many times you get up, dust yourself off
and move forward until you reach your goal. Our challenge today is to ensure
that those that have been selected keep to the task at hand and make us all
proud at the end of the twelve months in this programme.

I am sure that everyone is aware of the strides we have made in the last 13
years of our democracy. And it is exactly for those successes that we cannot
allow our country to regress because of the scourge of poverty and
underdevelopment. And surely the acceleration of the NYS will ensure that we
defeat these twin challenges in our country.

Once again I would like to congratulate everyone involved and wish you the
best in all the work that lies ahead.

Thank you

Issued by: Department of Public Works
13 September 2007