... 700 000 further education and training, FET, enrolments; 12 000 artisans, with a target of 30 000 a year by 2030; 90% of enrolment in basic education; two new universities - and if you don't know how a university operates, you will think it's a glorified high school. If this is not a good story to tell, then we must invest in buying you a comic book, because that is where good stories are for you. [Laughter.] [Interjections.] [Applause.]
The National Youth Development Agency, NYDA, has turned the corner. It has invested in a young person called Bohlakoana Moleko, who runs Yea Media Farmer Fresh Pty (Ltd) and grows spinach and Chinese vegetables, which he supplies to the Chinese markets and restaurants. He received support from the NYDA. This is one of the many stories in which the NYDA has invested and that resulted in small, medium and micro enterprise, SMME, support, as well as co-operative support. It has also resulted in young people not being seekers of jobs, but creators of jobs. [Applause.] [Interjections.] So, the next time we open our mouths about what the NYDA used to be, we should remember that a corner has been turned and we should applaud the current leadership of the National Youth Development Agency. [Applause.]
Twenty years ago, Nelson Mandela and millions of South Africans cast their votes for the first time, breaking South Africa from various epochs of land dispossession and loss of humanity and identity of black people in general and Africans in particular. As April 27 dawned and news of less political violence and general ululation was beamed on national television and printed in the mainstream media, a collective sigh of relief was heard the world over as we took the first giant step towards reconciliation, nation- building and economic development.
That day was not handed over to the struggling and toiling masses by De Klerk, but was the result of thousands of cadres having died in prison, exile and townships. De Klerk could not keep his behind on a hot, boiling pot for as long as the country was declared ungovernable and the ANC was preparing itself to govern. [Applause.] Unlike many things, freedom has a price and our youth have, over the years, paid that price.
This year, as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of freedom and the 38th anniversary of June 16, a narrative is emerging that those who were born in 1994 should be referred to as the "born-frees". Dominant intellectuals insist that "born-frees" are regarded as those who were born on or after 27 April and therefore are free South Africans, without the birthmark of influx control, apartheid brutality, land dispossession, economic exploitation, academic exclusion, racialised poverty, loud sirens of Hippos and "mellow yellows", silent nights of petrol bombs and struggle songs. Because others voted, they were therefore without sin, cordoned into an ideal world that knows no poverty, unemployment or inequality. Those unlucky ones amongst them who are still trapped in the cycle of poverty and want, just as their parents were, are told by the DA that they should blame the ANC - it has not delivered for the last 20 years...