The late struggle hero Oliver Tambo, once said: "A society that does not invest in its youth does not deserve its future".
Our presence here as Presiding Officers symbolises the importance and seriousness with which Parliament takes and treats the issues of youth.
As Parliament we intend taking everybody on board to be part of the transformation of our country and programmes such as Youth Parliament are one of the vehicles of this transformation, with this one targeted specifically at the youth.
As Parliament we recognise that youth in general, and youth organisations in particular, need to address the problems that the youth of our country are faced with. That is why, apart from other avenues such as Youth Council, we provide this platform for them to discuss and debate these problems. However, we also realise that they cannot do that alone. That is why we are also part of this endeavour. Together, we must transform this country.
Youth have a role to play in the development of our society
With the majority of our population consisting of people aged between 17 and 34 years, it is logical that development must be about and for this group. In this regard, in as much as the youth were central to the struggle for their own liberation, so must they continue to take the initiative as the soldiers and activists of the process of youth development.
As we speak, there are many challenges that are facing the youth. They include:
- unemployment
- substance abuse (e.g. drugs, alcohol)
- teenage pregnancy
- the HIV-AIDS pandemic
Theme
The theme for this year “Education and learning to address Youth unemployment, poverty and inequality” could not be more relevant. We are all aware that the world is in financial crisis and unemployment is rising day-by-day. Those that are bearing the most brunt of this crisis are the youth. According to available statistics more than half of the youth of South Africa is unemployed. And there is no better way to fight this unemployment than through education.
It is the youth themselves who are better able to tell us of the challenges they face regarding employment and skills than any other person. So this platform will enable them to do exactly that.
Because of this unemployment many young people are now at the forefront of violent protests that we see nowadays. This is because they have nothing to else do. It is not a problem in itself for young people to be involved in protests. No. But how they protest sometimes is the problem.
Education takes many forms. In as much as it will be the young people who will be speaking, with this theme we hope to as well educate the young people as to how to exercise their constitutionally entrenched rights of protests and expression. This is one of the ways in which we intend living to the call by Oliver Tambo to invest in our youth.
