Hon Chair:
They would just see us walking out of class and would try to stop us, and we would tell them, "Wait, this is our day."
Teboho Mohapi, one of the pupils of the class of 1976, spoke these words. We are celebrating Youth Month because of brave young men and women like Teboho, one of the brave young people in Soweto who stood up against an oppressive regime and demanded a better future. They demanded a more beautiful future. We must honour their legacy.
Today, in the present time, we must ask ourselves if we are indeed honouring that legacy. They fought and died so that our generation could make a "bokamoso ba rona" [a better future for all.]
The problem is that after 20 years of democracy, we have not arrived at that better future yet - "bokamoso bo bontle!" Where I come from it means "a beautiful future". That is exactly what the DA is fighting for. Yet, we look around and we see staggering youth unemployment, a struggling basic education system plagued by students not having textbooks, students not having teachers in class and a lack of political will to implement the desperately needed policies.
The NYDA was created by government more than four years ago and was meant to "usher in a new era in youth development". However, the agency only ushered in a new era, or rather generation, of corruption led by ANCYL and Young Communist League cadres like Andile Lungisa and Yershen Pillay.
The NYDA's CEO unjustifiably earns R1,8 million per year, an almost presidential salary, for what - as a glorified party planner? [Interjections.] The NYDA has failed South Africa and its youth. The agency's own report clearly illustrates that it failed to meet 95,5% of its targets in the past, but they never failed to award themselves with millions of rands in bonuses.
I will quote Kurt Cobain: "The duty of youth is to challenge corruption." [Interjections.]