Speech by the Minister of Small Business Development at the Progressive Youth in Business Private Dinner, Johannesburg
In his message to the youth of South Africa, one of the greatest sons of this country Moses Kotane once said: “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.”
When expressing these sentiments, Moses Kotane was speaking on a different platform and in a different epoch. However, his sentiments are still relevant today as they point to the role that the youth of our country have to play in society.
At this important function, I wish to reiterate that the youth have a critical role to play in shaping the future of our country. Like generations that came before them, what our youth do today will have a direct impact on our future as a nation. The actions of our youth are the ones that will determine whether or not our vision of a non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa is realised. Their actions will determine whether or not we are able to erode the legacy of many years of apartheid and colonial rule. Indeed their actions will determine whether or not the rebirth of the African Continent becomes a reality.
As we enter the Second Phase of our Transition, let us boldly assert that the economic empowerment of young people is not an option, but a national imperative.
South Africa is a youthful country. The majority of its population is young. The youth (14-35years) constitute 41.2% (20.5 million) of our total population. When we look at the demographics and include children between the ages of 1 – 13 years in the equation, then 77.6% of the South African population is between 1 – 34 years old. This reality challenges the whole of government, civil society and the private sector to redouble our collective effort to ensure that our future leaders are sufficiently empowered to approach the future with confidence. Similarly, we must challenge young people of today to seize the opportunities created by our democracy in order to create a better life for themselves and their fellow compatriots.
Today, as we seek to consolidate the gains of our liberation struggle, the country is looking up to the youth to once again play a leading role in the national effort to confront the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality. As a country, we expect our youth to contribute with the same determination that they displayed in the fight against apartheid, towards the creation of a better life for all our people.
Young people must continue to occupy the front trenches in the reconstruction and development of our country. They must continue to be a force for progressive change and radical transformation. They must be empowered to occupy their rightful place as change agents, rather than being mere spectators in the unfolding story of economic emancipation in our country.
In line with the spirit of vukuzenzele, our young people we must stand up and do things for ourselves. They must seize the opportunities brought by our freedom and democracy to empower themselves and their compatriots. We now live in a different world. The world has now changed. We are now on our own. Those who used to nurse us are telling us that twenty years down the line, we must now stand on our feet. They say we are now their competitors looking for the same markets.
Young people must not expect government or other people to do things for themselves. Government is there to create an enabling environment for young people’s businesses to thrive. Twenty years since our freedom, we can no longer afford to be passive recipients of government services. The story of my grand-mother is a story of vukuzenzele, entrepreneurship, survival and triumph over a hostile system.
As young people, we must utilise all institutions and opportunities that have been availed since 1994 to advance small businesses and co- operatives. I have travelled across the world and the African continent. I have seen small businesses struggling without any form of state support or institutional recourse.
We need to make the point that entrepreneurship is not something you do because you have run out of options to make a living. It must be a matter of conscious choice, passion, commitment and training.
To address the socio-economic challenges facing our nation requires a collective effort. Big business must come on board. Government cannot be a buffer between the poor and rich, and neither must it be used as a scapegoat. We need a partnership.
Let us pause and reflect for a moment on these disturbing and unpalatable statistics: Youth unemployment constitutes 73% of the total unemployment in the country. Employment of young people aged between 18 and 24 years has fallen by more than 20% since December 2008. The long-term solution to the nation’s unemployment crisis is to create a nation of enterpreneurs and not a nation of job-seekers. While South Africa has an acute youth unemployment problem, it is perhaps important to acknowledge that youth unemployment is a global phenomenon.
Given the current state of youth unemployment in our country, the question is not whether we should encourage our young people to look in the direction of entrepreneurship, but rather, can we afford not to? The youth have limitless potential to own successful enterprises and employ people, despite monumental obstacles that stand on their way. My Ministry is alive to the challenges and the need to act with speed and more energy to address these challenges. We pledge to support young people with viable business ideas.
Thirty years since our freedom, the participation of young people in the country’s economy is still less than adequate. This is partly a result of constraints and obstacle placed in the way of youth economic empowerment as well as lack of access to information.
The ANC-led government recognises the problem of poor economic participation by young people in the economy and has put in place numerous policy interventions meant to bring young people into the mainstream of our economy. Our approach towards youth unemployment hinges on the following policy principles:
- We will aggressively target Youth Entrepreneurship and Youth Cooperatives with holistic and integrated business development services supplemented by access to funding to develop and strengthen dedicated programmes for youth enterprises and youth cooperatives.
- Business Incubation for Young Entrepreneurs
- Entrepreneurship mentorship and coaching
- We will pursue Youth Set-Asides in procurement across the three spheres of government to ensure that young entrepreneurs have abundant opportunities to grow and develop their enterprises in an environment that nurtures the development of these enterprises and enhances their job creation potential.
Working in partnership with all stakeholders, including youth enterpreneurs, we will begin to develop a plethora of programmes, both financial and non-financial to assist our youth enterprises, and thus create opportunities for job creation to reduce youth unemployment.
We have no doubt that the much-needed economic growth and employment opportunities will come from a practical policy that enables small businesses to thrive and grow into profitable enterprises. The ANC’s point departure is that small businesses are the key economic growth drivers and job creators in South Africa.
SMMEs can be the backbones of any economy and the main driver of economic growth, poverty reduction and job creation. Currently, the SMME sector contributes more than 45% of the country’s GDP.
In fullfilling our mandate, we will seek to promote a co-ordinated and integrated support across government spheres and institutions for SMMEs. We will pursue an aggressive entrepreneurship drive and create an enabling environment that will make it easy for South Africans, particularly the youth, to start and sustain their businesses.
Our ultimate goal is to reduce obstacles to doing business wherever possible, particularly in areas such as compliance and regulation, transport and infrastructure, water and electricity supply, telecoms connectivity, licencing and labour. We will review the current policy and legislative environment governing the small business sector in order to remove whatever constraints that undermine their success and to open the way to co-ordinated and integrated support to small businesses.
Our specific support mechanisms to small businesses will, among other things, include; access to finance, business skill development, market access, competitiveness, easing the regulatory burden and advancing localisation, particularly leveraging on public procurement.
As a Ministry, we will continue to encourage the youth to open their own businesses and to apply and benefit from services that we offer. The youth need to seek better opportunities and grab them as they come. Working together with the NYDA, we will continuously seek better ways of supporting and uplifting youth businesses.
The ANC is committed to buidling a cadre of progressive businesspeople who understand the challenges of nation-building and reconstruction and development. We need cadres in the business sector whose passion to rebuild our nation and extricate our people from poverty, unemployment and inequality is beyond doubt. We need progressive businesspeople who will contribute to the radical economic transformation of our country and thus help advance the strategic objectives of our national democratic revolution.
Together we move South Africa forward by creating economic opportunities for young people and creating economic opportunities towards inclusive growth.
Amandla!
