Chairperson, I think one must state from the outset that we are very disappointed as the ANC. We have so many political parties in Parliament and in this Council, but they do not find it necessary to participate in an important debate such as the youth debate, which has a very significant bearing on the future of our country.
Over and above that, we're raising this dissatisfaction as the ANC, taking note, of course, of the fact that in the past Budget Vote debates we've had in this House so many political parties participating in them consistently raised the issue of young people being excluded from the mainstream of the South African economy.
Perhaps our approach as we engage in this debate, hon Deputy Minister, should not stop us as the ANC from reflecting on the role of young people and the extent to which they have shaped this particular country. This takes us as far back as 1949 when the ANC Youth League took a decision and adopted a programme of action, which shaped the direction the country was supposed to take. It was that group of young people led by comrades Nelson Mandela, Anton Lembede and Sisulu who then took it upon themselves to say, "Our future is in our hands and there is no way this country can wait until tomorrow."
It is the very same young people of that generation who also contributed immensely leading up to the adoption of the Freedom Charter, when they volunteered to go on a door-to-door programme to ask our people what kind of South Africa they wanted to have.
It is these very same young people, once more, who, when matters could not get to a point where the regime could understand the need to ensure that South Africa was decolonised and no longer characterised by interests that sought to serve the few, then took a decision to form uMkhonto weSizwe, which was the military wing of the ANC.
It is these young people, who then sought to ensure that South Africa, with them at its helm, would never again become the country that it used to be. Under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, in the early sixties, it was the very same young people who were then able to agree to send out the very same commander-in-chief, Nelson Mandela, to Algeria to go and receive his first training on guerilla warfare to come and ensure that South Africa is free.
It was once again young people who played a very strategic role during the seventies by going out and organising workers in our country and ensuring that they conscientised those who were put at the periphery of the economy. This led to so many strikes, one of which was the potato strike, which played a very significant role in the organisation of the African workers in South Africa.
It therefore shows that the ANC as an organisation has played a very significant role in consistently conscientising young people, in consistently raising young people and ensuring that, in whatever way, they occupied the centre stage that led to our democracy. That is why 1976 did not come as a surprise. That is why in 1976, with the uprising and the mobilisation of young people, we then found a young person who also felt that there was no other way, and he had only one choice, which was to submit or fight - and that young person said, "I am going to fight in order to defeat this ugly system that does not agree with our views."
It is that very same young person who, if given a chance, would have played a very significant role today in the democracy that we are enjoying. But, unfortunately, in 1979 this young person left a very profound message behind which said: "Tell my mother that I love her and my blood will nourish the fruit of freedom." It is these young people who played this particular significant role that gave birth to a generation of young people under the leadership of Comrade Peter Mokaba, because of whom we are where we are today and nothing stops us, once more, from reflecting in that was on what is happening here.
It was once again a group of young people who, at the time when Africa was colonised by imperialism, when imperialism had entrenched itself so much so that there was no space to fight or to organise, were asked what it was that they would do in order to allow the freedom of others to perish or succeed.
There was a group of young people and women from the Caribbean country called Cuba who said, "Whatever it may cost", who left their country, who dedicated their lives, who joined those who were in the country and who fought alongside uMkhonto weSizwe to defeat the regime that was trying to ensure that it extended its tentacles into Africa to defeat the objective of achieving freedom in our country. Hence, today, because of the efforts of those young people, because of the dedication of those young people, because of the consistent encouragement of those young people who were able to drive that kind of battle, today we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the battle of Cuito Cuanavale.
Like those young people, once more, we, upon realising that we do have our freedom asked, perhaps as the Deputy Minister asked: what is it that we need to do to ensure that we keep up the momentum; to ensure that we don't lose track of our young people; that we keep the spirit that our young people had during that time and keep the level of consciousness to ensure that our young people feel like South Africans and that they are part of Africa and want to make a contribution, not only in Africa, but in the world at large?
Are we doing enough? That is the question we need to be asking ourselves as hon members in this august House. Are we saying, with the level of consumerism that has found expression amongst our young people, that we are doing enough? Are we saying we are doing enough if for a young person to see himself as a successful person he thinks he must be better than the others?
Are we saying that we are doing enough as members of this august House to inculcate a spirit of co-operation amongst our young people for them not to see themselves as individuals, but as part of a collective; for them to see themselves as part of a generation that needs to launch its own struggle. I don't know whether it is an insurrection or whatever that the hon member from the DA was relating to.
With the remaining seconds that I'm left with, it is important, of course, to reflect and say that our programme in this Parliament, our experiences in our constituencies, have taught us that there are many challenges that our young people are experiencing out there. Hence there is no way as the ANC that we can stop encouraging and ensuring that the 52nd resolution of the ANC is implemented to ensure that there is an integrated approach in dealing with problems of young people rather than to have disjointed and anecdotal approaches.
On that basis, Chairperson, I thank you very much and hope that the political parties that did not participate in this debate ... as I encouraged the hon Mzizi this afternoon, if not this morning, by saying to him I hoped he would represent the views of the youth brigade so that we begin to look at whether it is still relevant today in our country. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]