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Youth Day provides us with an opportunity to consider the condition of our young people and the challenges that confront them. By any measure, the plight of millions of our children is unacceptable.
Only 28,5 % of black children - and 50% of coloured children - have two parents in their households;
The education system has failed whole generations of our youth. Literacy and numeracy levels compare poorly with those of even the least developed African countries; 65% of children fall out of the education system without matric. Most of those who pass matric receive a qualification that has been so diluted and degraded that it is simply does not prepare them for further education or for the job market.
Child abuse is common. Millions of kids grow up in environments where violence, gangs, drugs and criminality are commonplace - in their schools, in their streets and in their communities.
Thousands of children are parentless and are left to care for their siblings - or to sleep in the streets.
Youth unemployment has become the norm in many communities. Millions of young people are condemned to lives of inactivity, futility and mounting frustration and anger. They provide receptive audiences for fiery demagogues.
Everyone - including the government - acknowledges these problems. Everybody says that the situation is unacceptable. Conferences are held and workshops are arranged. Experts talk on TV and on the radio. Commissions are appointed to investigate the situation and to come up with solutions. The National Youth Development Agency holds a R100 million ‘anti-imperialist’