Chairperson, hon members, more than 30 years after the youth of South Africa took to the streets to defy the apartheid regime and face the guards and armoured vehicles, our country has changed significantly.
The old order was shaken to its core by this mass display of disaffection and it laid the foundations for the mass protests that gained momentum during the 80s, until eventually the apartheid regime had to acknowledge that it could not oppress millions when they resisted this oppression as a collective.
The youth of that generation are now the leaders of today and under their guidance the country has shaken off the shackles of that terrible past. We have moved, in these three decades, from that totalitarian dispensation to a democracy founded on one of the most outstanding constitutions in the world. The entire dispensation is built upon the recognition of the inherent dignity of each person and the whole set of basic human rights that flow from that assertion.
When we look at it in that context, we can say that for the generation of 1976 the promise of democracy has been fulfilled, that the new South Africa has indeed delivered what they dreamt of. But recently, during the xenophobic violence and more generally in the past few years, we have witnessed violent protests in many communities across the country.
One of the most noticeable aspects of these protests has been the prominence of our youth in these activities. While the youth of 1976 may feel that democracy has delivered for them, many of the youth of 2008 do not feel the same. It points to a deep sense of marginalisation and exclusion that pervades many of our communities and fills the youth with hopelessness and frustration.
It is our duty to ask how it can be that 14 years of freedom could have given rise to such a widespread disenchantment among the youth. In 1976 the youth rose up to demand political freedom and in 2008 the youth are again stirring, this time to demand economic freedom.
Once again education is at the heart of the matter and again under the spotlight is government's failure to provide a proper education and the conditions for that education to be translated into a decent livelihood. We ignore these warning signs at our own peril. I thank you.