Cyril Ramaphosa
Dear Fellow South African,
Engaging
with young people always leaves me energised. It is exciting to gain insight
into their struggles and triumphs and their vision for what can be done to
improve this country.
There is no denying that youth are a significant presence in our
nation’s psyche and fabric.
Far from the perception that they are complacent, politically apathetic or
self-absorbed, local and international studies consistently affirm that young
people around the globe are always more positive about their prospects.
According to the findings of an Ipsos Pulse of the People poll released last
month, 61% of South Africans aged 15 to 17 feel optimistic about 2020.
I have no doubt this is a sentiment shared by youth in general and especially
the cohort born at the turn of the millennium who are now beginning their adult
life, the ones the youth call Ama2000.
They are the sons and daughters born after democracy. While they have no direct
experience of the atrocities of apartheid, they continue to live with its
legacy of racial inequity, spatial injustice and poverty. These young people
are confident, self-assured and brimming with ambition. They know their rights
and aren’t afraid to demand them.
Our country’s youth represent energy,
hope, fun, potential, future and freedom.
They are digital natives fluent in the use of modern technologies and look to
enter careers that did not even exist at the time of their parents.
On the eve of the State of the Nation Address last week I had the privilege of
interacting with a group of such dynamic young people at an intergenerational
dialogue convened by the National Youth Development Agency.
We discussed the issues that are most important to young people and examined
ways in which we could align our perspectives and actions.
Naturally, access to employment and opportunities dominated the agenda. Of the
1.2 million young people entering the labour market each year, almost
two-thirds remain neither working nor studying.
The participants in the dialogue welcomed the fact that the issue of youth
employment was receiving attention at the highest levels of government. But the
refrain was familiar: they were ready and able to contribute to the economy in
various ways, including as entrepreneurs, but bureaucratic red tape and lack of
funding prevents them from doing so.
As Bright Hlongwane from Youth in Business South Africa told me, there needs to
be more funding extended to young entrepreneurs. They would like to see a
variety of financial institutions, developmental financial institutions, angel
investors, private equity firms as well as commercial banks extending credit
and taking a bet on young entrepreneurs.
For our country to prosper and thrive we must do all within our means to ensure
young people can participate in our economy in a meaningful way, whether it is
in formal employment or self-employment.
It was therefore fitting that I could use this platform to launch the
Presidential Youth Employment Intervention, which is a strategic national
vision and plan which sets out priority actions to address youth unemployment.
This includes a national pathway management network that matches candidates
with work opportunities. This will enable young people to have access to
opportunities as some of them do not have the networks that make easy access to
opportunities possible.
Specialised short focused courses in skills that employers need now will be
organised. This aims to address the problem of a mismatch between the existing
educational, training and development programmes and the requirements of the
economy.
We welcome the work already being done in this area, such as the programme
currently underway through the departments of Agriculture, Land Reform and
Rural Development and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to train
1,000 young students in the Free State in agricultural and other skills.
Many young people want to start their own businesses. They lack the technical skills
that can help them start their own businesses. The intervention will support
the growth of youth entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship is certainly not a panacea, but I am convinced that it is one effective and proven
way to confer identity and purpose, a sense of belonging,
and hope for the future for the youth.
The Presidential Youth Service Programme provides opportunities for young
people to give back to their communities. This initiative is designed to effect
change and make an impact at scale, as opposed to fragmented programmes that
have had limited impact.
I also announced in the State of the Nation Address that we will set aside 1%
of the national budget for a youth employment initiative. A number of
programmes and projects are being designed to address this national challenge.
The youth of our country clearly see this as a land of opportunity and promise,
despite the obstacles they encounter. In the past week alone I have met several
young South Africans who make me proud of just how far we have come and what we
have achieved.
There are young sports people like golfing prodigy Sim ‘Tiger’ Tshabalala who
is racking up international golfing awards at the tender age of 8. He is ranked
7th in the world in his age group and has won the US Kids golf
tournament twice. My spirits were lifted when Grade 11 learner Sinoyolo Qumba
from Orange Farm wrote to me about what should be in this year’s SONA . She
actually joined our speechwriting team in the drafting process. There are
passionate activists like Ayakha Melithafa from Eerste Rivier in the Western
Cape, who attended this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos to call on world
leaders to stand firmly for climate justice. I was bowled over when I met
Michelle Nkamankeng who, at 11 years old, is Africa’s youngest author and is
ranked among the top ten youngest writers in the world. The author of seven
books and wrote her first book at the age of 6 years old. As Professor Jonathan
Jansen said: “She is confident, articulate, insightful and passionate.”
It is these young people who are the real jewels of our country’s future and
who remind us that our freedom was won through the sacrifices of the young men
and women who were determined that not only they, but those who came after,
should live in the light of freedom.
We must continue to work together as government, business, labour and civil
society to ensure that the burden of unemployment does not continue to weigh
down our young people, crush their spirits and cause them to become despondent.
I am confident that the actions we outlined in the SONA will represent a new
frontier for youth development
As Frantz Fanon said, it is to each generation to discover its mission. This
generation has discovered theirs. It is now up to us to support them to fulfil
it. It is a historical fact that a nation’s failure to successfully nurture and
enhance the capabilities of its youth spells doom for the future of that
country.