Defiant support, economically and dysfunctional youth

The number of young people who were at the JHB CBD to support the ANCYL leadership shows that young people revolution is in full force. The fundamental and systematic approached followed here in encouraging young people to converge at the Bayers Naude square should be put in place to ensure engagement for youth development.

The energies and the determination in discussing policies economic policies should be shifted to ensuring youth development, and the policies that are tangible and be able discuss the current state of our educational system, learnership and the exit strategy for learnership holders to be fully absorbed in the working world.

There are questions that we need to ask and such questions should be directed all political structure and the private sector including government. These amongst other questions should be asked.

Are the majority of young people at the Bayers Naude square economically active?, At what extent do these young people skilled for the economy?, Is it not time to shift from Inflation targeting to un-employment targeting?, Is our government having sufficient skills development program and what is the impact of these programs as far as skilling programs? Is it that all young people who are at the Bayer Naude square not economically active? To what extent is the Nationalization of mines will assist in this regard?, Are our young people skilled enough to take charge of the agricultural sector for sustenance? To what extent are our young people cooperatives taken to task with proper economic advancement.

The state of our young people in the country needs urgent attention, but with monies being spent on the tenders and political protection, we will still be having a state of unskilled and les-competent young people, if government and the private sector continue to ignore the future for self-enrichment. Unemployment was highest among those aged 15 to 24 and lowest among those aged 55 to 64.

The youth unemployment rate and the unemployment rate for women is higher than the national average,

What is the main cause of youth high unemployment?, could it be that we solely focusing and putting our energies on policies that seek to address the economic impartiality and not foreseeing the danger of the in next generations, yes, government and the private sector including politicians are thinking about what legacy can I leave behind and the main answer is they are all focusing on economic legacy.

The nature of the and the character of our youth is to seek for greener pastures through the consumer entrepreneur, and the classifying themselves as entrepreneur and this is killing those who have potential to be better academics and researchers of this country.

Non-economically active young people in this country are growing at a massive rate, scientifically proven by the scores of young people who protested in the JHB CBD. Can the private sector and our government create an unbreakable camaraderie? I think they can be able to do such but the limitations are on the egos of those who control economy and those who control political power.

The nature of camaraderie cannot be placed only on incentives given to learner ship programs and poor tax incentives, but they should be able to come together and fight corruption, fraud and see the character of the constitution being put in place, then the camaraderie will prevail.

The consciousness of political leaders should be tested after the dozens of young desperate young people at JHB CBD, who have hope that the leadership of the ANCYL can pave way for them for economical emancipation. Can our government be proven wrong and have a program that will deal with young people job creation, skills development, and political parties also play their role by providing and creating a political arena for dialogues not squabbles as our political parties are doing at this stage in South Africa. 

Katleho Mantutle is a member of Moses Mathe Branch Ekurhuleni, writing in his personal capacity

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