Chairperson, let me take this opportunity to thank all members who participated in the debate. It was quite a youthful, honest and frank debate. They raised the challenges that young people are faced with in our country. I did not hear anybody say that it was not true that young people were the majority of the unemployed and the disadvantaged in South Africa. Young people are the majority of those who are faced with all the inequalities and illnesses that exist within society.
Whether we are political parties or we posture as them, we all agree that there is a sense of urgency to deal with problems that young people are facing. I may not necessarily respond to all the issues raised by each member, but it is important that we should not mislead ourselves when dealing with some of the challenges young people are facing.
I would like to thank the hon Mncube for raising the issue of the need for the establishment of the Youth Development Agency. All political parties and their youth structures converged and agreed that the two institutions, the Umsobomvu Youth Fund and the National Youth Commission, were not responding adequately to the challenges of young people. They are housed separately. Therefore, there is no relationship between those two particular institutions.
South African young people, including all political formations, agreed that they should merge the two institutions. This is so that when a young person goes to the NYDA, the NYDA should not say, "No, we are dealing with policy. You must go to the Umsobomvu Youth Fund." Then, when he or she goes to the Umsobomvu Youth Fund, they say, "No. We don't have the resources. We don't assist with this matter. You must go back to the previous institution." Let us bring all those institutions under one roof, as an elephant that can drive youth development in this country, slowly but decisively - like an elephant. And all political parties agreed to that.
I find it quite strange that the very same political parties are now critical of this elephant. They are highly critical of this particular elephant, which is hypocritical. At least if they were saying, "These are the challenges that the NYDA is faced with; and these are the things that we need to do to improve the functionality of the NYDA," I would have said, "Yes, that is probably an issue," but you cannot come here and be hypocritical and just shout down the NYDA.
Second to that, I found it quite strange because the DA youth formation was the first one to praise the formation of the National Youth Development Agency. Fortunately, I served in that ad hoc committee. When we interviewed for appointment to the board of the National Youth Development Agency, I was quite central to that. The DA youth was the first to hail the appointment of the National Youth Development Agency. Now today I am surprised that the Western Cape has its own youth development programmes - a country within a country. There are programmes that are geared towards addressing the challenges facing young people. But now the attitude that is being presented here is: We understand what you are doing in South Africa, but this is what we are doing in the Western Cape to advance youth development. Why aren't those programmes part of the National Youth Development Agency's programmes? Why didn't the Western Cape move faster in establishing offices of the National Youth Development Agency and therefore support those offices to advance the programmes of youth development in the country?