Chairperson, today's debate is about the theme "Youth at the centre of economic opportunities". I want to take it further by saying, "Youth at the centre of economic opportunities in advancing the national youth development plan." This is very important for the country. Today I am not speaking to the ANC, but to the nation. [Interjections.] The reason is that it is the responsibility of the youth of our country today to buy in and commit themselves to the National Development Plan, for the following reasons.
Firstly, as Cope, we associate ourselves with the new vision of the National Youth Development Agency. We do so for two reasons. The first is that we believe investing in the education of our young people will take us forward. The second is that investing in the skills development of our young people will also take us forward. When we were growing up, our parents told us that we had to go to school, to university and to work for us to be able to build a better life for our families. That is gone because we are not communicating that to our young people.
We should make sure that we, as a country, do not develop young people who rely on government. The government's responsibility is to lay a foundation for the youth, and they should grab those opportunities to build a better country for themselves. It is a shame that today's youth, parents and families have to rely on government for them to have a better life. It is the responsibility of the youth of South Africa to look after their parents and our people, to attend school in order to learn and to build houses for them. The idea of government continuously building houses for people, then later people burn things in the streets - that is the result of a lack of responsibility. As young people, we have a responsibility to go to school, to learn, to go to university and then to go and work for our families.
As Cope, we commit ourselves to that vision because redirecting your money to education and to skills takes responsibility. That builds a youth who understands their responsibilities. [Applause.] Mrs Njobe once narrated a story to me of her stay in Ghana. She said that what Kwame Nkrumah built in the youth of his country was the understanding that taking responsibility as a young person for building a nation will build a better person at the same time. You will build a better family and a better nation state. [Interjections.] Not everyone in the ANC knows the struggle. Not all of them. But this is not important right now.
The violence we experience in our country today is caused by the very same young people who are supposed to reconstruct the country. The violence we witness in Port Elizabeth, where I am from, where African brothers are killed every day, is something that O R Tambo and Kwame Nkrumah would never have been proud of. The very same Africans harboured our parents - some who are sitting on this side and others who are sitting on that side of the House - in their own countries. If we are a nation that is not able to stand up and if we are not able to build the youth of this country, that will undermine our struggle to build a better South Africa, a better Africa and a better world.
Ephraim Mogale and Hector Pieterson were conscious of what the Freedom Charter says about building friendships with all Africans. What we see today is something that as the youth we should not be proud of. All of us, as this collective of Parliament, must be at the forefront of educating our people on the importance of the struggles of Africa to the struggle of South Africa. We were given shelter, jobs and food by the very same people we are killing today. Will violence solve our problems? The answer is no. We did not want to build a violent South Africa. We wanted to build a better South Africa for our children and for generations to come. Therefore, I agree with the Minister in some respects. This youth debate should be a debate not to celebrate but to commemorate and educate the young people of our country about national consciousness, African consciousness and world consciousness.
For as long as we do not get to that level, we cannot celebrate. The problems that our country faces at Lonmin, of the youth throwing human waste in front of government and legislative property of this country, while we keep quiet, means we cannot celebrate. These are things that cannot be celebrated. This is not what Govan Mbeki and Nelson Mandela fought for. Mandela did not fight so that we could take over this country and have human waste thrown in front of this Parliament. The only Parliament we wanted to destroy was the Pretoria regime - and that is no more. It is our country now. It is us - government, the opposition and everybody here - that should take responsibility and provide education to our people. [Applause.] We can only achieve that as a nation if we educate those who are supposed to take over and inherit this country. [Applause.]
The youth today, whether from the ruling party, the opposition benches or anywhere else, is not the kind of young person that Siphiwe Mthimkhulu was. He knew that first he had to be at the forefront of the struggle to liberate the people of South Africa, and then giving them what is better. What are we teaching the youth today? We are teaching them violence and war. [Interjections.] You adults who are sitting here - you are responsible, for we are the very people who are using the youth to do all the wrong things that we are seeing in our country. [Time expired.] [Applause.]