DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE MARCH OPPORTUNISTIC
As previously stated, the African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal wishes to reiterate its support for a national youth wage subsidy. Our position is that this issue is not to be used for political point scoring as the Democratic Alliance (DA) did when it marched to the Premier's office in Pietermaritzburg this morning.
The economic hardships facing the majority of our country's youth should not be trivialized and used as a political football; especially during the Youth Month. History tells us that the events of June 16, 1976, which would eventually turn out to be a nationwide student uprising, were in fact intended to be a peaceful protest but the violent, brutal and barbaric response by the apartheid security forces ignited what was to be a seminal period in the history of South Africa.
The class of 1976, thousands of whom fled the country to seek military training abroad in order to physically confront the oppressor, are leaders of the freedoms that all South Africans enjoy today.
Youth Month is therefore an acknowledgement of the priceless contribution made by South African youth's to our freedom. The activities scheduled for the month serve as important reminders to all compatriots of the importance of the youth, as it is indeed our youth who are the future of this beautiful land.
We acknowledge that the youth form the majority of this country, yet share the least in the economic fruits of our freedom. The vast majority of our huge pool of unemployed is the youth. This we recognize and are grappling with the immense challenges this poses to the future of our country. The ANC-led government has continuously called for partnerships and innovative ideas to meet this challenge head on, and implore our compatriots to play their part in this regard.
We challenge our partners in academia, business and other fields to come up with creative ideas to harness the youth in the development of our land. We also encourage our youth to become involved in confronting this challenge. Education in all its facets should be embraced. Let our youth not only concentrate on university education but also consider vocational education, which is readily available at FET colleges but vastly under-utilized.
It is worth mentioning that the ANC Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) recently called for government to urgently utilise the R5 billion earmarked for the youth subsidy to absorb scores of unemployed youth into the labour market. It is our view that the wage subsidy should be used for on the job training and on internships. We have also called on NEDLAC to speed up this issue.
We believe that the DA march today was nothing but a desperate political scoring exercise. The DA missed a good opportunity to participate meaningfully during the sitting of the provincial parliament during discussion around youth development last week. Instead the DA has opted to embark on public grand standing exercise aimed at misleading the public. The march was not necessary because the provincial government has made it clear that it is readying itself for the implementation of the wage subsidy.
The ANC is proud of the youth programmes being implemented by the provincial government. To support students from poor families the provincial government has awarded 2 743 students bursaries worth more than R 112, 2 million this year - 2012. The Premier's office today stated that last year, the accumulative total of students supported by the provincial government bursary programme was 4877 at the cost estimated above half a billion.
Statement issued by Sihle Zikalala ANC KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Secretary, June 11 2012
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