Chairperson, I suppose I will be the only person who will be addressing this Chamber from a wheelchair. Let me briefly comment on the context within which this Bill is developing. This year June 16 is going to be celebrated within the millennium context, characterised by the national and provincial commitment to the rebuilding of our nation. The National Youth Commission Amendment Bill should be seen as a progressive Bill, promoting proper co-ordination, constructive policy and strategy engagement between the National Youth Commission and the provinces.
This Bill tries to ensure that the vision we as Government had for the responsibilities of the National Youth Commission is implemented where it matters most. What the department has found is that the current structures within the National Youth Commission are cumbersome and unmanageable, which detracts from the noble objectives which the National Youth Commission has envisaged for itself.
The vision of the National Youth Commission is clear. They are focused on the positive development of all youth in South Africa, regardless of race, colour, creed or religion. To succeed in this task of elevating the status of youth in our society from a situation where they had been ignored by the previous apartheid government, the National Youth Commission needed to have a comprehensive restructuring of the way in which they conducted their business. This is also in keeping with President Thabo Mbeki's directive of more efficient and effective service delivery.
It became increasingly difficult for the National Youth Commission to implement its mission statement, namely to promote the development of young women and men through the design and implementation of a holistic and integrated national youth policy and national youth development plan by ensuring interministerial, intersectoral and intergovernmental collaboration for the advancement of young people through the involvement of all stakeholders. This Bill seeks to address the practical problems brought about by the excessive number of full-time and part-time commissioners. The Bill suggests only five full-time members of the commission.
The Bill also seeks to ensure closer collaboration and co-operation between provinces, so that the provincial youth commissions can work together with their national counterpart in a more co-ordinated fashion.
What this Bill also seeks to highlight is the need to have norms and standards that are applicable to all youth commissions, regardless of where they find themselves. This means essentially that all provinces should have commissions and they should all account in the same way.
These provincial youth commissions will also enjoy the same status as the National Youth Commission, but in the office of the premier. The mechanisms for communication are also stipulated in the Bill, in terms of which the National Youth Commission is compelled to submit minutes on a regular basis to its provincial counterparts. Any programme run by the National Youth Commission will hereafter have a better chance of reaching its intended audience in all nine provinces, with the spirit of co-operation with the provincial youth commissions that is envisaged by this Bill.
This committee will especially monitor the youth development efforts in all provinces, to ensure that there are equitable development patterns in all of the nine provinces without exception. However, it is not only this committee that has an obligation towards our youth. President Mandela made it clear that everyone, including Government, political parties, business and civil society, has a crucial role to play, both in ensuring that the directives of the youth policy are carried out, and that the youth commissions are empowered to complete their tasks effectively.
We salute the efforts of the National Youth Commission and we applaud the Office of the President for stepping in to alleviate the problems within the National Youth Commission.
In conclusion, I want to echo the sentiment of our former President when he received the National Youth Policy Document in 1997. He said, and I quote:
We must recognise the contribution young people make to our society. We must build upon the imagination, energy, vibrancy and talents of this, our most precious national asset.
[Applause.]