Young MPs reflect on youth day and issues affecting young people

With youth day on Monday, 16 June 2014, People’s Assembly decided to chat to two of Parliaments youngest MPs, the IFP’s 26-year-old Mkhuleko Hlengwa and 24-year-old Yusuf Cassim from the DA.

When asked what June 16th means to him, Hlengwa replied: “Youth day is still a reminder [about] where we come from and the role young people played in building a new South Africa... in 1976 there was a struggle against the education system and a compromised future; they couldn’t allow the status quo to continue. Fast forward to today, the education system is in tatters and needs an overhaul. Young people bear the brunt and they need to stand up.”

Elaborating on what he meant about the education system being “in tatters”, Hlengwa said he was concerned that the government applauded the quantity of people who were passing when the issue should be on the quality of education, which was poor.

The DA’s Yusuf Cassim explained that, back then, “we knew what we were fighting against, today we need to ask the question, ‘what are we fighting for’?” He added that young people need to come together across politcal party lines to fight for a better future.

Hlengwa has spearheaded a proposal to create a multi-party youth caucus and rather than being a “knee jerk reaction to youth issues” or the short-lived Youth Parliament, he wants it to be created as a new institution in Parliament.

Both Hlengwa and Cassim come from a student politics leadership background. When Hlengwa joined Parliament to replace a retired IFP MP in 2012 at the age of 24, he was the youngest MP at the time. His father is ex-IFP MP, Nkosi Mhlabunzima Hlengwa, who passed away in 2005.

A few months younger than Hlengwa when he joined, Cassim recently became the youngest MP ever to be sworn in to Parliament in South African history. Cassim came up through the ranks of the DA Youth Leaders initiative, which has groomed a number of other high ranking new MPs under the age of 30, including Solly Malatsi and Phumzile Van Damme.

“I never had ambitions to come to Parliament. I put myself out there to serve when I was a student going against the oppressive governance at my university [Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University]… I think I bring fresh ideas and energy to Parliament. Because I was an SRC president I also understand what issues affect young people,” said Cassim.

When asked what those issues were, Cassim said young people were particularly concerned about unemployment and lack of job opportunities, as well as access to higher education. Cassim explains that he is going to spend a lot of his time in Parliament fighting for free access to higher education for “poor qualifying matrics”.

When it comes to education and job creation Hlengwa explained that the youth “see unemployment as a permanent part of their future” and that the current education system is often producing a “skills mismatch”. He added that the quality FET colleges need to be improved so they are seen as “institutions of choice, not a last resort” and that government needed to ensure that they adequately capacitate teachers with technical skills.

When asked what the impact of the Youth Wage Subsidy would be on youth employment, Cassim explained that in principle he supports the idea as it is “a unique way of incentivising job creating, as well as boosting [growth in] the economy” but he was concerned that the intervention is not substantive enough. “It’s been watered down to appease alliance partners.., it also needs to be tightly controlled and properly administrated so it’s not abused and produces the desired outcome of meaningful and sustainable job creation.”

Hlengwa felt that the Youth Wage Subsidy was part of broader intervention by the state and that “on its own it is not a silver bullet” but, it would “ease things for young people actively participating in the economy” and that hopefully they would get the required work experience.

When asked if he felt he represented the youth in Parliament and why it was important to have young MPs, Hlengwa explained that “it’s an assurance on continuity and an investment in the future but we should be able to rise above simply being young MPs and engage on a number of non-youth issues”.

Cassim explained that he is looking forward to Youth Day and remembering how far the country has come. He told People’s Assembly that he will spend the day launching a new DA campaign in Tshwane that would be calling on young people to demand better delivery from our ministers. As well as asking Minister Blade Nzimande about higher education for matrics who can not afford tuition, the DA will also be leading the call for decent basic education from Minister Angie Motshekga and will request that Minister Ebrahim Patel provide 1 million internships for young people. “The ministers need to hear the voice of the youth demanding change,” Cassim said.

This is the second installment of People’s Assembly’s Focus on Youth Month. See "Youth Day – It’s more than just another public holiday" for the first article.