Chairperson, hon Minister in The Presidency, fellow colleagues from the provinces and the National Council of Provinces, I am highly honoured to be participating in this debate on the National Youth Commission Amendment Bill this afternoon, more so when this debate is taking place eight days before our national Youth Day, the 24th anniversary of that fateful day of 16 June 1976, when the courageous young people took to the streets in defiance against the introduction of Afrikaans as the sole medium of instruction in the schools.
As we debate this amending Bill this afternoon, we should do so in fitting honour of those young men and women who lost their lives at the hands of the apartheid security forces on that fateful day 24 years ago.
We must do so to tell Hector Petersen, Steve Biko and many others that their lives were not lost in vain, because we are today shaping the future of this country in the very same chambers that carried out instructions for their killing.
In 1985, 15 years ago, the then late President of the ANC, Comrade O R Tambo, in his response to the continued militarisation of white youth through military conscription, and to the continued harassment and persecution of black youth by apartheid security forces, had this to say: ``A nation that does not value its youth does not deserve its future.''
We are here today, after 15 years, in a situation in which millions of young people are still unemployed, illiterate, without adequate skills to meet the challenges of the modern labour market, and continue to be subject to and victims of dread diseases like HIV-Aids.
The ANC-led Government facilitated a consultative process, inclusive of all youth organisations to discuss mechanisms to integrate youth at the centre of Government processes of policy formulation and resource allocation.
The 1994 youth consultative summit agreed on the formation of the National Youth Commission as a body that would advise Government on matters that affect young people. The 16th of June 1996 saw the appointment and inauguration of the National Youth Commission by the then President of the Republic of South Africa, Comrade Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.
Allow me to highlight some of the key achievements of the National Youth Commission in the past four years. There is no doubt that this country never knew anything about a comprehensive national youth policy. It is the National Youth Commission which facilitated a process for the development of a comprehensive national policy, which is in place today. Amongst other things, this national youth policy is charging the National Youth Commission with the task of devising plans for the national youth service programme. Indeed, there have been consultative processes with all stakeholders within civil society and youth organisations across the country for the development of this national youth service programme.
As we debate this Bill today, business plans are being processed by the National Youth Commission on pilot projects on HIV/Aids, literacy and the rehabilitation of Government's buildings for access by disabled people as part of this national youth service programme. The National Youth Commission has put in place a national youth information service, which is a service offered free of charge to young people regarding career choices, HIV/Aids, life-skills and other related issues that are affecting young people on a daily basis. There is no doubt that this service has assisted many young people on a daily basis, particularly those in rural areas.
The Youth Commission, in conjunction with the Department of Correctional Services, has engaged in a project of capacity-building and rehabilitation of young offenders. This project is about providing capacity-building for young offenders in prisons, and about providing counselling for those who are in prisons at tender ages, so that when they come out of prison, they come out not as hardened criminals, but as people who can contribute to our society in a meaningful way.
The amendment of the National Youth Commission Act of 1996, as the Minister has alluded to, is nothing but the streamlining of youth development and the building of capacity of the National Youth Commission to play its role in surging forward the project of youth development.
It indeed befits today's debate that when we talk about the National Youth Commission Amendment Bill, we should do so mindful that our country has, for a long time, been polarised and divided. I have alluded to the message of the late president of the ANC when he referred to white and black youth. It is therefore the responsibility of all of us in this Chamber, irrespective of political affiliation, to play a role that will ensure that the young people of this country, people who are the architects of the future of this country, are afforded an opportunity to play a meaningful role in the construction of a new South Africa.
These people must be afforded an opportunity to develop themselves so that when they are adults, they are able to play a meaningful role in our society, a society that will not know any racism, and a society that will not know discrimination on the basis of race, religion or sex. That is the call and the challenge that I am making to all of us, irrespective of political affiliation, as we deal with this amending Bill today.
It is no secret that after the 1996 inauguration of the National Youth Commission, more than six provinces of this country followed the steps of the national Government by facilitating processes of establishing provincial youth commissions. Today only one province does not have a youth commission. I do not want to debate the pros and cons of why we do not have a youth commission in that province, because, indeed, we must salute the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, the hon Mr Mtshali, for having facilitated a process of establishing this structure, which is nonpartisan and which encompasses all youth organisations and groupings in KwaZulu-Natal. We are challenging everyone else to follow that particular route, because there is no way in which we can politicise this issue.
When we were listening to the debate of people who have dissenting views on this amending Bill, the arguments were about nothing - they were purely political. They were about who was going to be appointed to the Youth Commission and about the dominance of certain groupings in the Youth Commission. I do not think it is our business, in today's debate, to discuss those issues, because when we rewrite the history of this country, we will know that we had these structures in the former Bantustans and in the former government of South Africa. These structures were not meant to serve the interests of young people, but to indoctrinate them and to make them the troopers that would spread the message of division and discrimination amongst young people and to make them the loyal servants of the apartheid system. [Time expired.] [Applause.]