Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka avoided any reference on Tuesday to her controversial state-funded holiday to the United Arab Emirates in December.
”I don’t want to say too much. Everything that you say will be used against you,” she joked about the furore that media reports about her R700 000 flight on a South African Air Force jet had caused.
She was speaking at the opening of a National Youth Commission (NYC) workshop on the accelerated and shared growth initiative (ASGI) in Benoni.
Turning her attention to the lack of skills in the economy, she said young people had to be trained to make a contribution to infrastructure development.
”The economy has grown so fast that the infrastructure cannot keep up,” she said.
She said government was planning to spend R350-billion on infrastructure development over the next five years and that the youth had to ”position itself correctly” in order to benefit from this.
”Does the country have the capacity to spend this money? This poses a challenge to us to ensure that we fast-track the development of youth skills… that are required by the economy, for example project management and artisan skills.”
Young people still constituted the majority of the poor and unemployed. Seventy percent of those unemployed were younger than 35, she said.
She said there were ”real opportunities” for youth in the development of township tourism as tour guides, interpreters, in souvenir businesses and in ensuring the safety of tourists.
With 2006 being the 30th anniversary of the Soweto uprising, she said the youth of 1976 had left a legacy of freedom.
”What is this thing that we are going to leave this year?” she asked.
Mlambo-Ngcuka said there was room for young people to set more ”revolutionary goals” so that South Africa’s economy could grow further.
The chairperson of the NYC, Jabu Mbalula, said macro economic intervention in the economy had the potential to benefit young people and should be enhanced.
He said the ASGI was a platform to help define the youth development agenda and should focus on the ”social well-being” of young people.
As part of this, the gap between school and the world of work had to be reduced.
”We must address discord between education and the world of work.” – Sapa