Our leaders are not in the business of finding solutions for young people

A spectre of generating new ideas, and contributing towards the body of knowledge by the youth and its leaders appears to have evaporated into the atmosphere of Thuma Mina intertwined with political correctness as a means to an end for political patronage.

The inability to rise new ideas within the ranks of young people in South Africa, and the extent to which history is regurgitated every year come June “youth month” is appalling, primarily because we have seen what our forebears have done when zeal and determination are combined.

Yet the current generation is found sheepishly begging to be born, while the older generation is vociferously refusing to evacuate the space.

We are found in this current state, while we recite without comprehending the seriousness of Che Guevara’s popular quotes such as: “The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe, you have to make it fall.”

In South Africa we are faced with a challenge of young people who are firstly unemployed, secondly young people who are unemployable, while the solutions which are brought forth can be reduced to a one size fits all through creation of employment opportunities.

On the other hand you have the private sector which have no regard or whatsoever for their role in nation building and taking responsibility towards fighting unemployment.

Combined with these challenges, you have youth political formations who are still anchored on pre-1994 struggle deliberations while the general youth populace is at the coal face of exploitation by the multinationals.

At the risk of being accused of pontificating, we dare say that the challenges require of us to gird our loins and parameters of engagements be drawn – or stretched – if we are serious about youth development as the young people of this country.

However, we do not intend drawing or stretching the parameters of engagement in this contribution because that is a task which should be left to the grassroots members of various organised youth formations; we intend not to usurp youth power.

Be that as it may, to those in quest to contribute towards the national discourse during this youth month, we beseech thee to save us from philosopher Frantz Fanon’s quotes on generational mission.

We already know this: our generational mission is economic freedom in our lifetime.

Although a constant reminder is progressive, however, these recitation does not assist us in making inroads towards realising this ideal.

Among other things we ought to be saved from this month is the Thuma Mina rhetoric, because Thuma Mina is not grounded on any policy position or realisable ideals but talks about talks on creating employment opportunities.

Unfortunately Jacob Zuma spoke along the same lines in his first state of the nation address in 2009 and it is public knowledge how successful his presidency was in this regard.

We don’t need talk – there is enough researched data on sectors that can absorb young people, enough data on how internships are not making any inroads on fighting youth unemployment, that expanded public works programme though it serves as a social security net, it is not enough to realise the ideal peoples contract to achieve a “better life for all”.

What our leaders must speak to in various podiums and seminars when commemorating June 16 are key and relevant issues.

The starting point among those issues is how the ANC led government can best deal with the ticking time bomb, which is a high rate of youth unemployment.

The nature of youth unemployment in South Africa is such that, it affects the skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled young people, it is so perverse that it cuts across class.

When addressing these issues we need to propose ideas on how we can best fragment our proposed solutions to fit the needs of these young people.

The one-size-fits-all approach is not working, it has never work and it will never work beyond the first coming back of those who are sent in the spirit of Thuma Mina.

Until we acknowledge the entrenched class categorisation within the youth ranks, whatever proposed solution will never yield the desired outcome of fighting the scourge of unemployment and poverty among young people.

Key among the solutions that we ought to champion is the enactment of punitive legislations which will curtail with severe penalties the repulsive illicit financial flows which has had direct deleterious effects on the economy of our country.

In a nutshell a high-level panel report provides that “illicit financial flows from the mineral sector are increasingly widespread and complex, necessitating a whole-of-government approach”.

The challenge in dealing with this practice is that while there is increasing awareness of multinational companies’ tax avoidance practices in the mining sector, there is no comprehensive practical combative plan of illicit financial flows South Africa.

The private sector is not only engaged in illicit financial flow, it is common cause that multinationals are hoarding large cash deposits or expanding abroad using the profits derived from South African economy.

This can be classified as a form of a sophisticated socioeconomic crime.

In engaging the owners of the means of production, we must propose solutions that will cater firstly for the youths who are out of school – the so-called unskilled youth – and interrogate the feasibility of establishing youth cooperatives within the 4392 wards of South African municipalities.

These cooperatives will consider various businesses.

This will include, but is not limited to, who is washing our cars, shaving or plaiting our hair, the owners of barbershops, who is fixing our shoes, the shoemakers?

How much is the National Youth Development Agency investing in these forms of businesses. Has there been any move from the department of small business since its inception?

On addressing the unemployable youth, statistics from the department of higher education, indicate that there are more than a million students registered with universities, and close to 800 000 students registered with technical and vocational education and training colleges.

The proposed solutions should focus on how we can encourage Grade 12 leavers to look into plumbing, engineering and other forms of artisan fields offered within the colleges as a form of a career, over the idolised university degrees, which are mainly theory-based compared with the practical skill acquisition offered by the technical and vocational education and training colleges.

When comrades are contributing towards the national discourse particularly in this month, they should speak to the question of data, this will include the exploitative nature of telecommunication companies, which will speak to how fast we can make informal and formal contribution towards the rise of the artificial intelligence.

Failing to realise that the current crop of national leadership is in their majority above 50 years of age, born before technology and exhausted, we will wake up one day and realise that we missed an opportunity to be our own liberators.

Based on the current statistics of youth unemployment, none dare contest the assertion that our leaders are no longer in the business of finding solutions for young people.

• Sol Mtsweni is deputy chairperson of the South African Students Congress in the western region, Eastern Cape, He writes in his personal capacity