Date: 16/06/2004
Source: Eastern Cape Provincial Government
Title: N Balindlela: Youth Day celebrations


ADDRESS BY PREMIER OF EASTERN CAPE, NOSIMO BALINDLELA, AT THE YOUTH DAY CELEBRATIONS AT HANKEY KOUGA MUNICIPALITY, 16 June 2004

Programme Director
Honoured Guests
The youth of our Province and the country in general

It is my great pleasure to join the masses of our young people who are gathered here to reflect on the historic role of the youth of our country and our province before freedom, during ten years of freedom and in the second decade of freedom. I started the day with a visit to various hospitals in Port Elizabeth and met many young people who are sick and celebrated the day with them. We are here not to mourn the tragedies of apartheid but to celebrate the great spirit of our young people that kept many generations free in spite of their oppressive reality.

It is this undying spirit that transcended generations from the era of the young "Nelson Mandela's and Walter Sisulu's" to the youth leaders of 1976 student uprisings and the 1980's 'young lions' that roared in every corner of apartheid South Africa, breaking the backbone of the oppressive dispensations. That spirit continued to inspire our young people to volunteer their services to push back frontiers of poverty and under development during our first decade of freedom. Our gathering here is symbolic of our unwavering commitment as government to nourish that spirit as a basis of building a people's contract for a better Eastern Cape, South Africa and a better world.

Considering our achievements of the first decade and the challenges of the second decade of freedom, there could be no better choice that Kouga Municipality for hosting this august occasion. We need to salute the youth leadership for such strategic decision to not just having this hosted by Kouga, but endeavour to make meaningful interventions for the youth of this area to realise the dream of a better life for all for which many made supreme sacrifices to attain. We salute late comrades Anton Lembede, Sol Plaatjie and others, who were among those who at their early years of life passed ways with us.

Now is the time for our youth to model their rise, marvelling at our great leaders of the youth who have walked the liberation road guided by the fundamental principles of 'democracy, freedom and franchise in our life time'. Knowing what they stood for, ooTatu Mandela, Sisulu, Mbeki, Mhlaba, Motsoaledi, Goldberg, never allowed the 'spears' of those comrades to fall. They picked them up and led the way through difficult times. These reflections are efforts to strengthen our resolve to face our future with a firm foundation, and I would appeal to our young people to acclimatize themselves with their history in order to understand the present and to prepare for the future.

Indeed our first decade of freedom brought immense changes to lives of millions of our people and young people are part of them. Institutional framework was established to ensure that issues of the vulnerable sectors of the society inclusive of the young people are mainstreamed. Many programmes were instituted to realise these goals over the years with significant success, although challenges remained looming large.

Representation of young people in decision-making structures of government and society improved, and major programmes aimed at effecting the preferential policy framework in favour of young people were instituted and began to register impact. However the sector remains hard hit by shortages of high end skills required for economic development, high poverty and unemployment levels, while new challenges such as HIV and AIDS also registered undesirably increasing negative impact on young people.

We are celebrating ten years of freedom while also putting into practice key programmes of the province's ten year turn around strategy, the Provincial Growth and Development Plan of 2004 - 2014. We believe that the role of the youth cannot be relegated to the periphery at this crucial time. Many intervention of government require a vibrant, vigilant and very active youth to material with phenomenal success.

These programmes include:

* Skills development which encompasses learnerships that target to get on board about 1000 this financial year and bursary schemes on which over R40 million will be spent over the MTEF period;
* Opening of door of culture and learning with many previously disadvantaged students reaping the benefits for example in engineering and actuarial studies to mention but a few;
* Recapitalisation of further educations and training institutions for youth to gain high end skills necessary for successful implementation of the PGDP,
* Massive food production programme;
* Channelling of over R10 billion worth of goods and services procured by government to Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) groups;
* 'Vukuzakhe' and vukuzenzele campaigns;
* Umsobomvu fund that will register unemployed graduates, train and channel them to be creators of wealth and jobs rather than waiting for traditional employment;
* Engagement of Community Development Workers (CDW) and learnership programme that are aimed at empowering youths with skills and opportunities to pursue their purpose with great passion and resilience; and
* A comprehensive HIV and AIDS treatment campaign that integrates government anti-poverty and unemployment strategies, etc.

It is saddening to realise high numbers of our youths who do not have hope in the future and begin to 'drown' themselves through various substance abuses. These delicate and inquisitive minds are then stimulated, unfortunately for many of our youth, to find themselves in conflict with the law. That becomes the beginning of a long journey for some while others are forced to loose their youth status and a bright star gets dimmed forever. Others' hope for the future gets weaken or destroyed by HIV and AIDS infections.

The government, working with every partner and stakeholder, cannot allow that. We need to say what are we, together, going to do to bring food, great quality of life, abundance to our households as well as peace and prosperity to communities and our Province. Thus making millions of our youths see value in life, and a need to live their lives to the fullest as custodians of the country's future.

In order to cherish their life we need to say what we need to do to eradicate poverty and malnutrition in our Province, breaking the backbone of illiteracy, providing health services that meet out standards of humanity, fighting dependence and infuse a spirit of 'sinako', to paraphrase one brand slogan of South Africa - I can, we can, Eastern Cape can and South African. A dominant justifiable paradigm of the liberation era was of none engagement and blaming the system, but now our young people need to start with their hearts and minds in taking up ownership of our development programmes.

A multi-dimensional approach is critical for all of us to engage in a programme of "Ilima". "Iseyele mawethu", we need to pick up our 'garden spears' and in collaboration with other-role players intervene directly whenever individuals and families are in distress due to poverty and under-development. Government is committed to building capacity and skills of communities and families to push back frontiers of poverty and implement community development programme.

A government's programme for the next ten years is absolutely clear with bold targets set for turning the Eastern Cape around in many respects in especially the areas of:

1. Systematic poverty eradication;
2. Agrarian transformation and household food security;
3. Developing of manufacturing and tourism;
4. Infrastructure development;
5. Human resources development; and
6. Public sector transformation.

I appeal to our youth to roll up their sleeves and join our collective effort to build an Eastern Cape of our dreams in a better South Africa and a better world. Our environment is dynamic and requires dynamic young leadership and people at a local level while also remaining very competitive at a global sphere. Young people need to take a central role in many intervention programmes of government aimed at ensuring a better life for all.

The massive food production programme needs young people to be sustainable for generations to come putting behind us for ever the scourge of poverty. They also need to grapple with and win the centre stage of the planned R10 billion worth of goods and services to be purchased by the provincial government over the medium term expenditure framework (MTEF). These ventures need risk takers who are engaged at early stages of one's life (young people) rather than the current trend of later entries of people to business especially among the previously disadvantaged communities.

The struggle to halt and reverse the effects of HIV and AIDS would be a pipe dream if young people do not build up on the liberation spirit that sustained generations and generations of our people to place us where we are today, in fighting the un-curable diseases.

Many of you are in the public service. A clarion call has been made to serve our people with humility, honest and integrity, virtues that would help ensure clean governance of our province as we build a movement that is none-tolerant to fraud, corruption and unethical behaviour in our environment.

In line with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), information and communication technologies are to be prioritised to ensure that our communities, including those in remote rural areas, become part of the information society. The President has pronounced on major projects in which I believe youth should take a centre stage. These include government's effort to bring services closer to the people through establishment of Multi-Purpose Community Centres (MPCCs) in each local municipality financed through the municipal infrastructure grant (MIG). The cutting edge information technology being availed to improve accessibility of government information and services needs the critical minds of young people.

U-Tat'uMandela uthi, isizwe esingananzanga ulutsha lwaso asinakamva. You are our greatest asset, custodians of our future; therefore let not the apparent insurmountable challenges facing our society today blind fold your ability to a great future that awaits our society. You not only carry our hopes and our aspirations, but those of Africa and many nations of the world who are looking up on you to help create a new world order.

I reiterate the commitment of the Provincial Government to do everything in its power to ensure the mainstreaming of young people's issues in the governance of the province as an investment in our future. In line with the performance management tool I have introduced to the members of the Executive Council, steps will be taken to ensure that these ideals are made a reality, not just in our lifetime but during the first term of government.

"We shall not abandon the poor young people"

I thank you

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
16 June 2004