At Youth Day celebrations in East London on Saturday, President Thabo Mbeki questioned whether this generation is living up to the tradition of past youth leadership.
”The task at hand for the youth is to mobilise our energies to build a united and prosperous nation,” said Mbeki, addressing a crowd gathered at the Absa Park Stadium.
He said the current generation needs to make an effort to undo the pervasive social reality spawned by apartheid. He cautioned that the wishes of those who lost their lives in 1976 will not be fulfilled if today’s youth are caught up in irresponsible lifestyles.
”The youth of today has to establish a non-racial and non-sexist society in order to cultivate a better existence for the next generation — we cannot build a caring society when the taking of human life and acts of robbery occur. We cannot create a better existence when our communities are faced with young drug addicts and alcoholics who face a bleak future and constitute a liability to society.”
Mbeki also said that while past generations of youth fought to reclaim humanity, the present youth need to fulfil their sense of humanity. ”The present generation needs to assist government and the rest of society by addressing the current challenges the country has been faced with.”
He said the government has increased the national student finance aid scheme for needy university students to address skills shortages.
”Our skills-development programme says that we need to increase the number of young people doing mathematics and science at higher grade so that we improve the graduate output to 50 000 by 2008.”
The government has identified the need for the development of scarce skills, and has therefore injected R600-million towards further education and training colleges. ”During this financial year, more than 20 000 students have been registered for National Certificate programmes.”
Mbeki added that a presidential youth-development forum has been set up as a part of ”accelerating youth economic participation”. The forum will be chaired by the deputy president and the National Youth Commission chairperson.
”The inaugural sitting of the forum is set to take place on June 18, and will help promote more understanding among the business community.”
He also urged the youth to position themselves to assist the country to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup. ”Our youth should continue engaging themselves in the opportunities arising from this festival.”
Be clear
Meanwhile, African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Jacob Zuma called on the party’s youth to go to its upcoming policy conference and be clear on what they want. He was addressing a half-full Mangaung Stadium in Bloemfontein where the ANC Youth League held its June 16 celebrations.
Zuma said the ANC’s policy conference is to evaluate and discuss policy to help the party and government move in the right direction. ”You must go to the conference and you must be clear in the issues that you want to raise.”
He said one of the issues that has to be discussed is power and authority. ”Where is power, in the ANC or in the state house?” He has cautioned that power should not move to the state house.
Zuma asked the youth to watch an ”element” in the use of its power. ”How is this power utilised. Is it abused or is it appropriately used?”
Zuma referred to the revolution for which the ANC has always fought and said it is going to be a serious challenge. Whether the organisation has the capacity to go through it, time will tell, he said, adding that the youth league is at the heart of this revolution.
He told the youth to be bold and that it is their right to debate issues such as the leadership of the party and the country. ”The future is in your own hands.”
Referring to the public-sector strike, Zuma said a solution must be found and urged all involved to act responsibly. ”We should have found a resolution before the strike,” he told the gathering, but said he did not want to elaborate on the issue as he did not have all the information and was just reacting as any other politician in the country would.
He cautioned that instability in South Africa as a result of the strike should be avoided.
He also called on the youth to be brave, bold and articulate in the direction they take.
He sang his trademark song Umshini Wam (Bring Me My Machine Gun) twice at the celebrations on Saturday, the crowd dancing with him. Speaking about the song, he said it is not an individual one but an ANC song sung by Umkhonto weSizwe cadres ”as they were itching to fight”, adding that it is ”a wonderful song of the ANC”. — Sapa