26 May 2004
Madam Speaker,
Deputy Speaker,
President,
Deputy President,
Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Honourable members of Parliament,
Distinguished guests,
Comrades and friends.
From the onset I would like to express our sincere appreciation to the President for a wonderful speech delivered on Friday last week. The speech was specific on what is it that we need to do. He spoke about achievable things and most importantly was time bound.
Madam Speaker you are assured of our intentions to utilize the speech of the President as a guide in our oversight function.
We are debating issues raised in the Presidents speech with our hands faced up, without any hidden agendas on how to accelerate the mammoth task of solidifying the foundation of our democratic order.
Madam Speaker, young people played a pivotal role in the struggle for freedom and democracy, they fought tirelessly for the creation of a united, non-racial, non-sexist and a democratic society.
They insisted and continue to insist that whatever we do should not be defined on the basis of race, ethnicity, language, gender, cultural or any such considerations.
Madam Speaker, prior to 1994, our black youth were denied access to quality education and training, faced by social ills such as crime, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, swelling the ranks of the unemployed etc.
Madam Speaker, the late President of the ANC, comrade OR Tambo once said " A NATION THAT DOES NOT INVEST IN ITS YOUTH DOES NOT DESERVE A FUTURE".
The qualitative shift brought about by the advent of democracy in 1994, changed the terrain for the youth sector.
The RDP document, noted in its introduction that special attention must be paid to the youth of our country, as a result youth was identified as a target group, catered for in a wider programme aimed at addressing poverty and underdevelopment.
In its endeavours to address the needs and aspirations of young people, the ANC led government established the National Youth Commission, located in the office of the President, its location was to enable it to fulfil its mandate of raising the profile of youth issues in government. Its brief was to provide a co-ordinated framework and facilitate co-operation for all youth programmes in different depts for the benefit of young people.
The adoption of the National Youth Service Programme by the cabinet was indeed a key achievement. The corner stone of the Youth Service programme is skills development, utilization of existing skills for the development of society and striving for National unity at all times.
Madam Speaker, the situation of our young people requires a concerted National effort that will improve skills level, give work experience whilst at the same time allowing young people to serve their communities.
The setting up of Umsobomvu Youth Fund opened opportunities for young people around issues of skills development and job creation.
In executing its mandate, the fund is focussing on three programmatic areas, contact, information and counselling, this programme is aimed at providing young people with information and support regarding careers (including bursaries,) employment, entrepreneurship etc, to date over 80 000 young people benefited out of this programme.
The second programme is skills development and transfer, the programme is aimed at providing unemployed youth with technical skills, life skills and work experience which enable young people to access jobs or be self-employed. Already on the National Youth Service Programme 1000 young people were trained out of 10 initiated pilot programmes and a further 5000 is to undergo training before end of the year, using the capacity of further education and training colleges.
Madam Speaker, the third area of focus is youth entrepreneurship programme aimed at both business development support and enterprise finance. The fund launched a world first electronic based business development support voucher programme to enable young people to access support services such as business planning, productivity improvement, tax and accounting, marketing plans etc. and 2700 young entrepreneurs have been assisted.
Madam Speaker, 10 000 young people went through the entrepreneurship education programme last year, the Micro Finance Programme, provides micro finance loans of between R1000 - R5000 and to date 700 young entrepreneurs have benefited, the SME Finance Programme provides finance of between R50 000 and R5 million and 41 entrepreneurs were assisted last year. The aim is to provide young people with access to finance to start or sustain their business.
To date the fund has committed R500 million to 90 projects in these three areas and about 100 000 young people benefited and 13 000 direct jobs have been created.
In his state of the nation address the President said, "In the period since the holding of the growth and development summit, we have reached the figure of 64000 with regard to learnership. We have already studied our experience in this regard. Arising from this, we will engage the SETAs, to increase the uptake of learners and improve the focus on the skills that are in short supply. This process of engagement will be completed by the end of the year. We will work to ensure adequate funding of the technical colleges and proper alignment of the courses they offer with the requirement of the economy," He went further to say, "By the end of the year, we will compile a register of all graduates so as to link them up with Umsobomvu, learnerships, and other schemes and institutions that would help them to start their own businesses or get jobs"
Madam Speaker, the speech of the President is sending a clear message to the youth of our country, that this society cares about them and is more than prepared to invest in them.
It is our sincere hope that what would dominate our debate would be issues of fundamental political importance guided by a clear understanding of our commitment to better the lives of our people.
I am convinced, if we act in that manner we would be empowerment to remain focussed on the immediate challenges that were ushered by our hard fought democracy and the debate will be conducted under an atmosphere of honesty, frankness and openness.
THANKS