Ayesaba amagwala. [Cowards are afraid.]
Chair, I think you should not even have called me because my turn to speak was so dearly announced by the hon Hill-Lewis, with such an ovation and a red carpet, basically praising everything I have said in the past. [Laughter.] [Applause.] The hon Mnqasela says young people are tired of speeches, yet he is giving a speech. [Laughter.] Let's forgive him because you cannot say that young people are sick and tired of listening to speeches when you yourself come to this House to give nothing short of a speech.
As we celebrate the 37th anniversary of 16 June, I ask that the House also joins in celebrating the 34th anniversary of the Congress of South African Students, Cosas, which was born out of the struggles of Soweto 1976. [Applause.] Cosas was instrumental in introducing many cadres of our movement - some of them are members of this august House - into political activism and the demand for social justice and an end to apartheid.
We wish Cosas all the best as they venture into new forms of organising and rallying young people and students in the fight against drugs, teenage pregnancy and for quality public education for all. A celebration of 16 June should not only be about flowery speeches - yes, we agree - national rallies or annual pilgrimages to the Hector Pieterson Memorial. June 16, for all young people and for the ANC as the ruling party, should also be about the goals those young people sought to achieve on that particular day. We owe it to that generation of young people - and many others who came before and after 1976 and boldly put a mark in the long struggle against apartheid - to reflect the significance of their struggle and whether the current generation of young people lives up to their dreams, ambitions and vision of a better South Africa.
June 16 was not only about resistance to language use in schools, which was unilaterally imposed by the apartheid government on students in order to augment their colonisation and oppression, but it was also about economic freedom and equality in a better South Africa for all. June 16 was about change.
In the last 20 years since the dawn of democracy, the four successive Presidents of our country have led this project for change. The laws that had marginalised the black, Indian and coloured youth, in particular from fully participating in the economy, have been changed. In theory, all South African youth have equal opportunities.
However, since 1994 the levels of poverty, unemployment, inequality and economic injustice still remain, mainly due to the negotiated nature of our transition and the resistance of the dominant economic forces to change. At the heart of changing the lives of millions of our people lies the economy and, therefore, economic transformation and ownership.
It is through this that millions of young people will see the value of democracy and appreciate the struggle against apartheid and injustice. We will not stop blaming apartheid for our current misery, for we inherited the same poverty it imposed on our parents and their parents. We fully agree that young people should be seen as their own liberators and they should be mobilised into action to change the conditions in which they find themselves. The question of ownership and control of land and mineral resources, as well as the skewed racial patterns that persist to this day, remain indefensible and continues to fuel racial and, inevitably, economic tensions in our society. This June 16 must be about the economic ownership and control of the major resources of our country by all the people, equally.
This government has done more in 20 years than any other government could have in more than three centuries. [Applause.] Although the hallmarks of an apartheid society are still prevalent, our youth are not subjected to the same levels of exploitation, segregation, oppression, abuse, influx control or prejudice as was experienced by their parents. [Interjections.]
Therefore, if ever there was a time to be a young person, it is this time, the one we are living in, as the current youth and as the current generation. For the young at heart and the young as defined by age, this is a time when our country's young people are searching for fresher solutions to the challenges of human modernity.
It is at this time, just as many other postcolonial and neocolonial countries did in their own time, that we begin to ask the questions, such as whether those who secured our democracy 20 years ago built a future that we should all be proud of. It is at this time that we ask the pertinent question: Is this what Mandela, Sisulu, Tambo, Hani, Slovo, Kathrada, Motsoaledi, Goldberg and many others sacrificed their youth for and even paid for dearly with their lives?
But it is also a time when we are called to action to remove the faulty bricks of our democratic accord in order to reshape our country, our economy and our lives to resemble what the generation of leaders had imagined. You would have noticed that when I mentioned those who dedicated their lives to the freedom of this country, there was no one who belonged to the so-called Progressive Party or whatever the DA used to be called in the past. [Interjections.]
I think it is important that we reiterate the fact that there were people who lost their lives for the freedom that we have. People who try to claim and hijack that history in order to put on the mantle of being freedom fighters must be dealt with. We cannot let that continue. [Applause.] The so-called campaign by the DA to wrong the rights of history; the so-called "know your DA history", whose main intention is to pull the wool over the eyes of our youth, can and will never, ever succeed.
The youth can see what is happening in the Western Cape and the youth do not want to see it repeated in other parts of this country. The dream that the DA will take Gauteng is a pipe dream. In fact, when many young people in Gauteng hear this dream, which you always purport, you make them suffer a thousand nightmares. [Applause.] We also say that this is the time when hopelessness breeds not contempt for both our historical oppressors and those who continue to benefit from the foundation they laid but pragmatism and drastic changes to the social, political and economic superstructure that still resembles the past.
This generation, whose birth pains were cleansed with tears of joy over a dawning democracy, a free Mandela, returning exiles and universal suffrage, faces the complex challenge of ensuring that it builds a future whose past can be seen in the scars on the faces and lives of those who came before. Many have been persuaded that they can do it, irrespective of the odds imposed on them by historical injustices and they have succeeded against all these odds. However, many are struggling to make ends meet and many are still lingering in hopelessness, servitude and poverty. It is this youth that we should speak for and ensure that our democratic institutions work for them.
One of the historical imprints of the past was the forced removal and movement of black people from the rural and sustenance economy to go and build the newly sprouting, glittering gold and diamond industry of Johannesburg and other metropolises. This movement has not stopped and has created a culture of urbanisation among the South African youth. As soon as they complete their schooling and because they see no future in the rural economy, they leave for the city. For this, the people in the Western Cape, in particular the premier of the Western Cape, calls them refugees, unfortunately. [Interjections.] It is millions of young people who have populated the informal settlements, townships and city streets in search of quality livelihoods, employment and skills institutions to have a bite of the apple of freedom. Many of them succeed and in desperation take up odd jobs in the mines, kitchens, gardens and corner shops, in the streets as vendors, in the construction industry and some in the main economic industries.
Others fail, unfortunately and, in the quest for the South African dream and miracle, they end up trafficking drugs, as prostitutes, carjackers, ATM swindlers or pickpockets and are unfortunately destined for a life in prison or an early meeting with the undertaker. This has also resulted in more than 120 service delivery protests nationally, because the urban municipalities are unable to cope with the demands imposed on their infrastructure.
Yes, our people have the right and freedom to move and should not be constrained and contained far away from urban life. Rural life needs to be improved. In the absence of opportunities and the possibility of a better life in the rural areas, these young people, although they are being forced in a nonviolent manner, obviously migrate to a city centre.
Our government has to invest more resources in the development of our communities in rural areas. We have to invest in agricultural skills and also skills needed for the building of quality housing, electricity, water, sanitation and all those amenities that are available in the urban areas. More importantly, we have to support government's National Rural Youth Service Corps programme, which is led by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, and also the National Youth Service, which is led by the National Youth Development Agency.
There are a lot of young people who have capacity and skills and have been trained by this government in agricultural science and all those skills. We need to invest in those young people so that they are able to contribute towards food production and food security for our economy.
For us to halt this migration of young people into urban areas, which pushes them into informal settlements and squatter camps, we have to support all the government policies and interventions, including the National Development Plan and the Industrial Policy Action Plan. In the same vein, we should remain critical of reports that there is huge wastage when it comes to the whole issue of food security.
Thousands of young people have also thronged to FET institutions as a result of the call made by the Minister of Higher Education that the state will pay for their bursaries in full. We believe that this is one of the things we need to invest in. It will call young people to go to those institutions as part of making education fashionable. There's nothing criminal about calling for education to be made fashionable. We think that collectively, with our communities, we should ensure that young people love their education. We think that is critical.
For some time we've been listening to the call that there is a need for a youth ministry. This is a debate that has existed. However, in its place there is the NYDA. We are not of the view that youth development should be compartmentalised into a single ministry. Every government department has a responsibility for every young person in this country. [Applause.] Every government department must ensure that it integrates its work and synchronises it with the youth development strategy that has been put into place. Therefore, we do not think that a single youth ministry will resolve the major problems confronting young people.
The NYDA is not an ANC Youth League or a Young Communist League institution, as alleged by the letter that was read by the hon member from the ACDP. It is politically representative. There is new leadership, and Parliament collectively participated in its appointment. It has already addressed Parliament and the Presidency on the kinds of change and intervention that it seeks to realise.
We must emphasise that as the ANC we will be the first to protest should the NYDA seek to represent particular, singular political issues or organisations. We will be the first to say that the NYDA belongs to all the young people in this country, irrespective of political affiliation. [Applause.] [Interjections.]
The DA started in this House with the statement that they did not support the youth employment accord and that it has failed. We are quite shocked that the DA would say that because the leader of the DA youth is a core signatory of the youth employment accord. Some of the members, who are sitting on these benches, representing the DA, spoke out in support of the youth employment accord. [Interjections.]
We have consistently said that we cannot look at any intervention that relates to resolving the youth employment crisis as a silver bullet. We will have to look at collective proposals that have been put into place - and those collective proposals are contained in the youth employment accord. It includes the business sector, civil society, trade unions and government, as well as the leader of the DA youth. [Interjections.]
To narrowly suggest that whatever problems are confronting young people will be resolved by the youth employment accord is a sham and merely an election campaign. [Time expired.]. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.