Chairperson, hon members and young people of South Africa, with many in the ruling party loosing sight of the real challenges confronting young people, South Africa is in the wrong hands. The ruling party is obsessed with phrases and names when discussing the economic situation confronting South Africa. They worry greatly about whether the unemployment problem in South Africa can be solved through a youth wage subsidy - which we, as the DA, are proposing - or whether it should be under the auspices of a job-seeker grant, which the ANC in Mangaung proposed and resolved; or whether it should be under the newly formed and revised youth employment incentives. No matter what you choose to say, Mr President, just remember one thing and one thing only: that the South African youth will not be patient for a very long time. Allow me to address Mr President in absentia. Mr President, speeches like those made over the weekend at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development will not yield jobs. It takes more action than speeches to develop a nation. South Africa needs doers, not actors or speakers. Mere speaking does not mean delivery. Unlike the DA, the ANC keeps on talking and making empty promises, and nothing but promises. [Interjections.] We are tired of speeches. We need action, action and more action. These are the words of the youth of South Africa today.
The National Youth Development Agency is failing in its mandate. Of the R20 million planned for the funding of small businesses in the year under review, the 2011-12 financial year, only R0,8 million was spent. This accounts for 95,9% of the total budget meant to help young people. This has gone unspent and this affects young people whom it should have helped to grow as entrepreneurs. "Youth at the centre of economic opportunities" remain doomed.
I also need to say that there is something that we need to learn elsewhere in the world. I have taken the time to take a very good look at the research and work done by Harvard University in assessing the problems confronting the work environment. In fact, their challenge is similar to our challenges in South Africa: Universities and institutions of higher learning in general are producing students who are not ready for the workplace. They do not necessarily possess the skills required in the various sectors of the employment field. How, then, do you fix this situation? I think we should be taking lessons from the report that Harvard University has produced.
We need to go deeper than the current situation that confronts us; deeper than simply coming here and making speeches. We should listen to the young people from Lebode, Thaba Nchu, Nqamakwe and Tzaneen. They are saying that they do not know what the NYDA is doing for them. [Interjections.] The only time they see the NYDA is when there is a rally, organised for the ANC. [Interjections.] The only time they hear anything being said about them is when Ministers make speeches, like the one who made the speech here before me, saying that we intend to do this, that and the following for young people. The real question is: Does that translate into the creation of jobs instead of being mere speeches that you make on this podium? We need to be more serious than that. [Interjections.]