Chairperson, this debate is in honour and remembrance of the youth of 1976, who rose against the system that left them fundamentally excluded, cut out and isolated. In that context, a brutal government used a language of instruction in schools to alienate and disenfranchise the youth. The apartheid government underestimated the ability of the angry youth to agitate for change and eventually to overthrow an entire system.
Today, South Africa's youth is excluded and disenfranchised, not by language but by a government and a ruling party that has put politics above people. Young people need to feel that they have a stake in our society; that they can be part of and contribute to the building of our country. They need to feel government is for them; in their corner; working day and night to ensure that they have a better chance in life.
The DA and the ANC agree that the only sustainable way to build an inclusive economy is to sustainably grow the economy and to create jobs. We agree on that end but the particular tragedy of the last four years of the ANC-led government is the complete inability of the ruling party to agree on the means. The paralysing divisions in the ruling alliance have meant that the government has been unable to implement even a single policy initiative aimed at breaking down the dividing barriers in our economy.
Today it is 1 209 days since President Jacob Zuma stood on this very podium and announced the introduction of the youth wage subsidy, a plan to give young South Africans a chance to get their first job and start on the pathway out of poverty. How can young South Africans take anything the President says from this podium seriously ever again? How could the President come here and make a concrete promise to the country, and specifically to the youth, and then turn his back on them so spectacularly? Why did he come here and make that commitment if he knew he did not have support from his own benches? That was massively disrespectful to young South Africans.
Today the Deputy Minister announced that the R5 billion budgeted for the youth wage subsidy is no longer there. It is gone. It was a shocking announcement, hidden in his speech. He says it will now be used to fund the youth employment accord. This is surely a huge slap in the face of the national Treasury and the Minister of Finance.
However, this is typical of the complete confusion around this issue for the past three years. First the President announced it, then the Minister of Economic Development decried it. The Minister of Finance announced it, the secretary-general of the Congress of South African Trade Unions decried it, then the President re-announced it and today the Deputy Minister redecried it. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
If the President had implemented it when he first said he would, the programme would already have benefited more than 440 000 young people. Where the DA governs, we did not need to have any paralysing internal political battle about an obviously sensible solution. We saw the crisis, we saw the urgent need for intervention and we acted. Where the DA governs, we implemented our version of the youth wage subsidy as soon as we possibly could and thousands of young people have already benefited. They are starting to build a more prosperous future for themselves in sustainable, decent jobs. [Interjections.] I want to make a commitment today to all young South Africans and to my colleagues in the ANC benches. Here, from this podium, is a promise that young South Africans can rely on. Wherever the DA is elected to government in South Africa, we will immediately implement the youth wage subsidy. [Applause.] If we are elected to govern in Gauteng in 2014 - or should I say "when" - we will implement the youth wage subsidy on day one. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
Let me come to hon Manamela, who is obviously speaking after me, unfortunately. One would think the point of the youth employment accord is very clear and simple: to provide a real plan for job creation for young people, hon Manamela. Here is a crisis; here is a solution: We need to create jobs. But I think the hon Manamela let slip the real point of the youth employment accord in this House earlier this year, speaking in no less a debate than the debate on the state of the nation address, when he said, "As the ANC, we believe the Youth Accord speaks to the call for ..." - no, not jobs - "... unity, compromise and consensus." [Interjections.] In his own words, there it is. There is the truth.