The development and empowerment of South Africa’s youth must form one of the focal points of the country’s reconstruction and development programmes, President Thabo Mbeki said in his weekly online letter as president of the African National Congress.
Drawing on research in a Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) report, Mbeki said a census conducted in 2001 and released in 2004 showed that 39% of the population was aged between 14 and 34. Of these, 10,3-million people (22,9% of the population) were aged between 14 and 24, and 7,3-million were aged between 25 and 34 (16,2%).
Quoting a National Youth Commission (NYC) statement of January this year, Mbeki said: ”Housing delivery is youth development, access to education is youth development, and the creation of jobs is youth development — in fact, all of government’s work affects young people.”
But, he questioned whether the youth is well organised to play the role of drivers of progressive change, as they did when they took to the streets for change on June 16 1976.
”The youth can and should play a critically important role in helping to build the new society to which we are committed. Accordingly, the task to attend to the mobilisation and organisation of the youth cannot and should not be left to the NYC alone,” Mbeki said.
He quoted further from the Stats SA report, which found that after the age of 17 there was a steep increase in the proportion of people not attending an education institution — from 29,3% among those aged 18 to 64,3% among those aged 21, and then to 86% among those aged 24.
”These figures present a worrying picture that emphasises the imperative for us to do much more to ensure that our youth access education. It is obvious that without the requisite education and training, we will not be able to achieve our objective of youth development and empowerment.”
The report found that the field of study of youth with tertiary qualifications was directly related to labour-market status. ”For example, on the one hand, among those with healthcare or health-science qualifications, 71,5% of youth were employed, while 10,8% were unemployed and 17,7% were not economically active.
”Among those with law qualifications, 71,1% of the youth were employed, while 10,6% were unemployed and 18,3% were not economically active.”
On the other hand, he said, of youths with computer science and data-processing qualifications, 50,3% were employed, 26,1% were unemployed and 23,6% were not economically active.
”These figures underline the importance of providing correct career guidance for our youth, based on a scientific understanding of the needs of society and the economy today and tomorrow.” They also emphasise the need for continuous, life-long learning to adapt to technological changes and develop new skills.
He noted that the percentage of unemployed youth reached a peak of 39,1% at 25 and then gradually decreased, conveying a directive to society to increase youth employment.
Turning to youth pregnancies, he said: ”It must be a matter of great concern to all of us that nearly one-third of our young women become mothers while they are in their teens,” adding that this needs to be attended to.
Mbeki said that, according to the Stats SA report: ”Of the approximately 171 000 people counted in prisons, correctional institutions and police cells, as many as 122 000 were between the ages of 14 and 34 years (71,4%).”
The vast majority of youth in detention, 117 000 of 122 00, were males (96,2%), he added.
”We must treat this reality as an avoidable tragedy both for the individuals concerned and society as a whole. Once again, it emphasises the imperative for us to do everything we can to achieve the central objective of the national democratic revolution of the development and empowerment of our youth,” Mbeki said.
He said that in the near future the nation will have to consider a revised five-year national youth policy, something towards which the NYC is currently working. ”When the document is finalised, all of us will have to treat it as the national order of the day that gives all of us our route of march, which we should all follow with great determination.” — Sapa