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IFP YOUTH BRIGADE PROGRAMME - JUNE 2006
June 7, 2006
"HEALTH, EDUCATION AND
ENTREPRENEURSHIP - THE SUSTAINABLE PATH TO YOUTH EMPOWERMENT"
(IFP Youth Brigade perspective on challenges facing the young
people in South Africa)
INTRODUCTION
The IFP has always had a vision for a non-racial, productive and
prosperous South Africa. The IFP's understanding of liberation
is that so long as thousands of young people yoke under disease,
languish in ignorance and bear the brunt of unemployment then
liberation has not arrived.
As such, the IFP Youth Brigade will be using the month of June
to highlight the yawning gap between what President Thabo Mbeki
calls 'the age of hope' and the reality of young people whose
daily experience is one of despair.
HEALTH
A healthy and productive youth population is the safest
guarantee to a prosperous future for the young people of South
Africa. It is therefore no surprise that HIV/AIDS presents
itself as the greatest threat to young people who aspire for a
better future. The ANC government's clumsy approach in
addressing the scourge of AIDS in this country has further
placed young people's livelihoods in great danger of being wiped
away by this dreadful disease.
A government's duty is not to debate, hypothesize and
philosophise. The duty of government is to act, implement and
confront HIV/AIDS with the political will and resources
commensurate with the national devastation that has been caused
by this disease.
As such the Youth Brigade will continue to forge sustainable
partnerships at branch level to ensure that South Africa's youth
remain healthy and free from AIDS. More importantly, the Youth
Brigade will intensify its current efforts of establishing
networks of support for those infected and affected by AIDS.
PROGRAMME: Launch of the Youth Brigade National AIDS Brigade
11 June 2006, Kwa-Mbonambi - Kwazulu Natal
EDUCATION
Twelve years after freedom, the free education that was promised
to our youth remains a pipe-dream. The escalating costs of
higher education have become a barrier to entry to thousands of
young people who have a right to education. The government's
approach to the education crisis has been to shut down teaching
colleges and cut down on funding to universities, which has
effectively closed down the doors of learning. Instead of
building a solid educational infrastructure as a basis for youth
development, government has opted for quick-fix solutions such
as learnerships, which are a costly, ineffective and
unsustainable exercise. Government needs to design a
comprehensive education plan that will focus on skills-driven
education in general and affordable tertiary education in
particular.
PROGRAMME: Meeting with NSFAS
Pretoria, date to be confirmed
ENTREPRENEUSHIP
The greatest talent among the youth today is entrepreneurship.
What is needed is the correct climate to cultivate and unearth
young peoples' entrepreneurial potential. Schemes such as ASGISA,
JIPSA and other such initiatives do nothing to activate youth
entrepreneurship. BEE as a policy has failed dismally to locate
young people at the centre of its benefits.
Entrepreneurship has not been accorded the value it deserves by
government.
PROGRAMME: Youth Entrepreneurship Summit
Durban, Richards Bay and Ulundi
(dates to be confirmed)
CONCLUSION
As we look back thirty years since that heroic day of June 16
1976, the youth of 2006 demand politics that will ensure the
necessities of life. The youth of 2006 demand a society where
there is hope of achieving more for themselves in 2006 than they
could have achieved in 1976.
For further information contact:
Mr Thulasizwe Buthelezi
083 482 7936
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