Hon House Chair, hon members and members of the public, good afternoon. On 7 May this year, the youth of this country went out in their hundreds of thousands to vote for the ANC to continue to deliver services to them. They renewed our mandate to continue improving their lives in this country.
This ANC democratic government has committed itself to transforming the post-schooling system, including the inherited apartheid social and economic structure, in order to bring about a new social order. We as the ANC have a working plan in place to move the youth and people in general of this country forward. We have therefore committed ourselves to building a comprehensive system that integrates universities, further education and training, FET, colleges, sector education and training authorities, Setas, the National Skills Fund and public adult learning centres.
The Freedom Charter, which is the blueprint for the democratic revolutionary forces, calls for the doors of learning, culture and training to be opened to all. Immediately after the 1994 democratic breakthrough, we were faced with the mammoth task of radically opening those doors according to the mandate that was given to us by the people. The ANC government had to do that knowing very well that education and training is a key and vital component of national unity, nation-building, reconciliation, social cohesion and, more importantly, youth development.
Education and training is a critical cornerstone of the National Democratic Revolution. As a result the President, in his state of the nation address, raised the issue of education and the government's plans for education. He said that Grade 12 learners who gained entrance to university would increase from 172 O00 in 2013 to 250 O00 in 2019. [Interjections.] He raised the issue of 12 new education and training colleges that are to be built. We have opened a new medical school campus at the University of Limpopo and we have also built new universities in the provinces of Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape. [Interjections.] These are the issues that the President raised in his state of the nation address in tackling the issues of education.
The hon member of the IFP came here to the podium and asked us what good story we have to tell. [Interjections.] The hon member of the IFP forgets that from 1995 they ran the KwaZulu-Natal government. He forgets that from 1994 till 2004 they ran KwaZulu-Natal into the ground and in the process they reduced themselves to a regional party based in Ngoma. [Interjections.] We as the ANC are offering the youth of this country quality education. [Interjections.]
Then you find the hon leader of the EFF - I see the DA has also jumped onto the bandwagon - who says that the two universities are high schools. [Interjections.]