Society has no choice but to hear the call of youth for their own development, because there can be no future without a youth capable of meeting the needs of the country's development, writes Fikile Mbalula.
The socio-economic and socio-political evolution of South African society has dramatically impacted on our youth and altered the dynamics of the environment they find themselves in. As we look back and remember events that came to pass in June 1976, we similarly reflect on the path we have traversed as South Africa's youth and the historic role we have played in moulding latter-day South Africa.
The dawn of democracy in 1994 necessitated a review of the role of youth in a free and democratic society. Gone was the era of brave revolutionaries whose dedication to their country was demonstrated on the battlefield by placing themselves in harm's way to free their land. Society had redrawn its boundaries overnight and laid down new tasks for the youth. Ours was a free nation desperate to cultivate a dedicated and patriotic cadre to advance the national democratic revolution along new frontiers of struggle. The National Party had been defeated and was facing extinction. A new sense of urgency had emerged to position our youth as benefactors of the South Africa of tomorrow.
Our youth has always lived by the ethos, 'nothing about us without us'. They have internalised this and have become champions of their own cause across all social strata. In the same vein, they have fully internalised the reality that the future of this country, and indeed the world, is in their hands.
South Africa boasts a youth that has characterised itself as robustly activist, be it in politics, on social issues or within the economy. We must build on this activist culture to cultivate a truly patriotic and dedicated cadre whose commitment to the advancement of the national democratic revolution is beyond question. Too often our youth have become whiners and whingers who are quick to throw stones before they understand the prevailing dynamics. This energy and activism must be harnessed and channeled appropriately such that it adds the right kind of value to our national growth and development. This is a national imperative that must be driven collectively by all organs of civil society.
Others have not hesitated to suggest that our youth have been depoliticised and have become apathetic since the advent of democracy. This assertion has been refuted, backed by statistics and trends in recent years that demonstrate that our youth remain activists and understand their role in advancing our democracy.
In defence of our democracy As frontline soldiers, our youth have a primary obligation to defend our democracy. This manifests itself in a number of ways. It is the youth who must set the agenda in the national public discourse. These are the opinion-makers who must influence the direction of our national development and growth. The media establishment has sought to denounce our youth as a lost generation who cannot add any value to our national growth, and has sought to position itself themselves as their mouthpiece. Yet young people have spoken for themselves and declared that they are ready and willing to assume their rightful place as kingmakers and opinion-makers in every facet of our social and economic life.
Our youth must remain militant revolutionaries and rebels with a cause, and must rebel against attempts to depoliticise them and render them insignificant in our national discourse. Militancy remains a strategic vehicle for our youth to advance the youth development and empowerment agenda. Our detractors continue to project our youth as a 'spent force' whose relevance has passed its 'sell-by' date and whose interests do not go beyond parties, clubs and alcohol. Our youth must collectively rise to put pay to this lie and demonstrate their central role in South Africa's socio-political and socio-economic life.
We must similarly reject politics of patronage that seek to place us in positions to buy our loyalty and silence. We must expose those among us whose sole interest is to ascend to positions of power and influence with no interest in forwarding the national developmental agenda.
Young people's voices must be loud and clear. They must demand the right to speak for themselves; not through spokespersons whose sole interest is to advance their own selfish agendas.
Some people have been quick to undermine democratic platforms of youth simply because they wish to put forth young puppets as leaders, puppets with whom they would be able to effect their own hegemony. Some have even dared to decry the alienation of the youth from such democratic processes as though democracy means that their puppets must be at the centre of youth leadership. As the ANC Youth League we will continue to lead the youth to rebel against all forms of patronage, opportunism and careerism. As leaders of the youth we must pride ourselves with leading a youth generation that thinks independently and charts its own way forward on the challenges that confronts it. We must oppose any agenda that seeks to treat our youth as robots.
The national democratic revolution (NDR) is still firmly on course and the realisation of its tasks depends on our ability to remain vigilant and reject those tendencies that seek to detract us from the task at hand. We must never be found wanting when the NDR is entrusted to us. The revolution must be safe in our hands, for to be apolitical and less militant is tantamount to selling out the revolution.
Youth in education Education remains the most significant arena for youth development and emancipation. As our society continues to grapple with the legacy of apartheid, the youth remains at the receiving end of our efforts and is therefore most affected by our interventions. At times, such interventions have unintended consequences, diluting our well-meant efforts. Our greatest challenge on this front is to ensure our education system is responsive to the nation's cultural diversity. Western culture and value systems have been imported wholesale into African communities at the expense of indigenous cultures. To date, this remains the biggest failure of our education system.
Young people themselves have a significant role to play in addressing this anomaly. More importantly, education must ensure that our youth are able to further both their individual and collective development as a nation. We cannot afford to perpetually produce graduates that are not equipped for meaningful economic participation.
Youth and AIDS The HIV and AIDS pandemic has reached alarming proportions in our society, and young people are the hardest hit. Our ability to secure our nation's legacy and to build a cadreship better prepared to lead South Africa to a brighter future is directly related to our ability to contain the HIV and AIDS scourge and achieve a zero new infection rate by 2014. This is a task that must be taken up by every young person in the country. This goal will forever remain a pipe dream unless young people themselves take ownership of this campaign and lead from the front. The ANC Youth League has declared war on this pandemic and every Youth League branch needs to incorporate in its programme of action initiatives that seek to advance this objective.
For young people to play a meaningful role in taking responsibility for their lives and their behaviour, we need to integrate education about HIV and AIDS into our schooling system from the lower grades throughout the schooling years. In every community, young people must assume the role of being care-givers to those infected and affected by AIDS. We must retrace our steps and find our way back to a caring society whose value system and ethos is driven by ubuntu. We have no doubt that our youth have what it takes to rise to the occasion and fight this pandemic with the same vigour and determination they fought the struggle against apartheid.
As part of doubling our efforts in ensuring that our interventions make the necessary impact, we must ensure that government's roll-out of antiretroviral drugs is accelerated to reach all those who need them. Those who come after us must never find us wanting and blame us for not paying enough attention to a scourge that has the capacity to decimate our nation.
The vibrancy of our democracy and the growth of our nation has, as one of its most critical cornerstones, civil society. There can be no doubt that youth form an integral part of civil society and has a fundamental role to play. The ongoing task of transforming our society to one that is non-racial, non-sexist and at peace with itself requires a firm commitment from our youth.
Youth and the workplace
Our 'Jobs For Youth' campaign seeks to place the plight of youth at the centre of the country's job creation agenda. It is for the same reason that we opposed any attempts to liberalise South Africa's job market through the creation of a dual labour market characterised by wholesale casualisation of labour, particularly at entry level. For our country to progress effectively towards full youth emancipation and empowerment, young people themselves must take advantage of the benefits of freedom and participate in the mainstream economy of the country. Institutions created by government to advance youth economic participation have fallen far short of expectations and have failed to make a dent in growing youth unemployment. Young people therefore need to apply their own innovation and carve out their own place in the national developmental agenda.
It remains a sad reality that the vast majority of those in prison and in trouble with the law are young people. Many get brutalised on entering the criminal justice system and emerge from the system hardened criminals. A sustainable solution to their criminal behaviour will not be found unless the root causes of the criminal behaviour itself are addressed in a focused and sustainable way. Research has shown that there is a direct relationship between crime and poverty. As a society, we therefore have an obligation to work together to eradicate poverty and build a peaceful society.
The correctional services system remains a matter of serious concern to us.
Our prisons are bursting at their seams and those jailed for petty crimes end up being hardened criminals with little regard for society. Our youth must therefore be at the forefront of providing voluntary services and making a difference.
It is our expectation that our youth will embrace the value system handed down the generations by the founders of the ANC and ANC Youth League. Their selfless dedication, personal sacrifices and unwavering commitment to the liberation struggle must inspire our youth to emulate their example and reject dogmatism and ignorance and become a dynamic force to take South Africa to new heights.
In advancing the NDR, young people have a central role in ensuring that the deracialisation of our society becomes a reality. Through national discourse and engagements at other forums, African youth must build bridges to reach out to and engage white youth within the overall ambit of building a patriotic cadre.
South Africa is a member of a global community and we must continually strive to advance the struggle for a just world through unwavering solidarity with those who remain oppressed. We must intensify our struggle against imperialist and neo-colonial tendencies. South Africa must become a beacon of hope for those who have yet to be liberated and our youth must rigorously engage with their international counterparts to influence the world order in line with our national vision. We must work for the liberation, among others, of the people of Swaziland, Western Sahara, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Palestine.
Meeting recently during the National Youth Policy Review Convention, organised by the National Youth Convention, the youth were unanimous in their call for an Integrated Youth Development Strategy that would permeate all government departments in all the three spheres of government, including the private sector and NGOs. The youth in this convention also elaborated on the need for a comprehensive institutional mechanism that would implement this Integrated Youth Development Strategy. Thus the youth continue to define their role and chart the way forward on the tasks at hand to ensure their own development. In this way, the youth continue to demonstrate the motto that 'nothing about us without us'. Society at large has no choice but to hear the youth's call and yearning for their own development because there cannot be any future without a youth capacitated all round to meet the leadership needs in the various spheres of our country's development.
Fikile Mbalula is President of the ANC Youth League.
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