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ID President Patricia de Lille says she remains ‘concerned about the massive challenges faced by our youth, particularly unemployment, which is currently at around 70%.

‘However, the fact that Youth Day 2010 comes at a time when we are hosting the World Cup and hundreds of brilliant international and local soccer stars should give the youth plenty of inspiration to help them into the future,' Ms De Lille says.

‘Many soccer stars come from extremely poor backgrounds and have moved on to be very successful through lots of hard work. This should be an example to South African youth, who can also look to incredible local players like Siphiwe Tshabalala, Steven Pienaar and Mathew Booth.'

The ID President urged the youth ‘to also learn from the lessons of 1976, when many children and teenagers made the courageous choice to give their lives for freedom and opportunity.

‘We must not lose focus of the sacrifices and courage of those youngsters that stood their ground in 1976 against armoured vehicles and live bullets - this is the kind of memory that has the strength to inspire us going forward into the future,' says De Lille.

‘The youth must also take the choices they face seriously - the difference between choosing drugs and alcohol, or books can be the difference between failure and success.'

On a lighter note the ID Leader wished Bafana Bafana ‘strength for tomorrow's game.'

‘Whether we win or lose that game against Uruguay, you are our heroes and so we support you no matter what,' De Lille says.

She added that she had ‘a feeling that we can expect another goal from Siphiwe, meaning that Bafana will at the very least win 1/0.'