Do something that will make a difference

We have a great opportunity to understand the opportunities that present for development. We need to understand that societies progress by constant transition, and normal transitions are effectively inter-generational handovers. The worst situations are those of war, which disrupts transitions. The anti-war folk song of my generation has the lines:

Where have all the young men gone?
Long time passing? Where have all the young men gone?
Long time ago? Where have all the young men gone?
Gone for soldiers every one? When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing? Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago? Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards every one? When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

South Africa is not at war, so we have to focus on facilitating the development of a new leadership cadre. The question is, how does this happen? To whom? And what is the measure of readiness of such a new leadership cadre?

We are a nation of the young. Our demographic profile confirms this. A large number of South Africans are between the ages of 15 and 29. Although the country has not reached the 30 percent mark, viewed as the dangerous "youth bulge" in developing economies, this cohort will make up more than a quarter of the total population until 2030. From 29 percent of the total population in 2010, the percentage of youth will decline slowly to 25 percent in 2030.

Our present demographic profile presents a tremendous opportunity - but it also constitutes a serious risk, given that joblessness mirrors age and race fault lines. Young black people account for two-thirds of the unemployed below the age of 35. Unemployment rates are highest in the 15- to 24-year-old group (46.6 percent in 2008) and second highest among 25- to 34-year-olds (26.2 percent). For black youth, the unemployment rate is 65 percent. If youths fail to get a job by 24, they are unlikely to ever get formal employment. Unresolved, this trend poses the single greatest risk to social stability.

Sound leadership demands that these risks be anticipated, understood and, to the extent possible, circumvented. What is certain is that the solution lies in our hand, or more precisely, in yours. It is in this context, that I believe it is imperative that young people are represented properly; in other words, a political handover to sensible young people is not only advisable but also necessary.

In South Africa much of the political 'heavy lifting' has already been done. We have had to organise ourselves against apartheid, risking life and limb, and we succeeded. We are still standing to tell those tales. We had to prepare to govern, albeit in an environment where we knew nobody who'd ever been in government. We had to convene elections with great intensity because our first crop of representatives would be the crafters of our constitution.

Against that backdrop, the first generation of Members of Parliament had to draft and adopt new legislation to replace apartheid laws and to reflect the values of constitution. The task is ongoing - but let the record speak. One of the big responsibilities of the young generation is to return the honour to the responsibility of governing. I operate in the world of politics where logic does not always reign supreme.

Pause for a moment and consider the political changes around the world in the past year - the Greek election was convened after the previous attempt failed to produce a majority even from combining the three largest parties; the recent election battle between Sarkozy and Hollande in France; take a trip to Russia and examine the Putin/Medvedev musical chairs; then travel to Australia to understand the in-fighting between the current Prime Minister Gillard and her predecessor, Rudd, in the Labor Party; ask why the awful war is raging between North Sudan and its one-year-old neighbor South Sudan; then flip across to Mali in West Africa to try and understand the military coup. And then, agree with me that logic is not an attribute available in large measure in politics.

Yet, in politics, as in life, there has to be handover. And as with all handovers, the more orderly they are, the better. My first question is whether you're ready. By ready, I am not speaking of storming the Bastille, no heaven forbid that! South Africa needs a generational mix of people in leadership positions. So, as I am identified as a campaigner for generational mix, let me add the caveat - age cannot be the only criterion! Leadership has to be about values, respect, discipline, persuasion and a series of softer attributes. The worst leaders are those who lack the maturity to understand that the desire for power is unlikely to render you a competent leader, and that power is a force to be managed with utmost care and respect for that power itself.

The work in the National Planning Commission has been the most fascinating journey to date. The Commission has 25 of its 26 members drawn from outside of government. The commission has a powerful mandate to describe the South Africa we need by 2030, and to take a hard and critical view of where we are, and what impedes our traverse towards that future. This is a position of immense power. Collectively we have declared that by 2030, our generation will be out of play - either to the next life, or to the rocking chair - and young generation will be the decision-makers. Be it in politics, institutions of higher learning, corporations, or just in life.

While we have looked at 2030, the implementation must start now to get to that place described in the Vision as: Now in 2030 we live in a country which we have remade. We have created a home where everybody feels free yet bounded to others; where everyone embraces their full potential. We are proud to be a community that cares. We have received the mixed legacy of inequalities in opportunity and in where we have lived, but we have agreed to change our narrative of conquest, oppression, resistance, and victory. We began to tell a new story of life in a developing democracy.?We began to share freedom and the uncertainties of living with it and in it. To get to this Vision, we have to believe ourselves capable of creating such a new story, as a true recall and not as some distant future fiction. The hard work has to start now.

How ready are our young people? Readiness should never be confused with appetite for a lifestyle. The readiness I refer to is the boring stuff of hard work and intense learning. I am not asking young people to travel the same route that our generation did - and yes, I am part of the 1976 generation. Sometimes we express ourselves wrongly as expecting you to walk in our boots. We tell you stories of how tough things were and how lucky you are.

It is true that my generation took risks that hopefully you won't have to take. I, for example, joined the ANC at the age of 23 with the single objective of being a guerilla. I did not join the movement to become a minister; political power was not even on the horizon yet. I knew that I would probably be arrested and tortured - and that proved correct. So, the intentions could never have been about the lifestyle I now enjoy. So I am not asking young people to face prison and torture but, I am asking something different of young people.

I am asking young people to be prepared to learn. And when you ask what, I will reply with the words of the poet Bertolt Brecht who wrote in that stirring poem, In Praise of Learning

Study from bottom up,for you who will take the leadership,?it is not too late!
Study the ABC; it is not enough.?but study it!
Do not become discouraged, begin!
You must know everything!
You must prepare to take command, now!
Study, man in exile!
Study man in the prison!
Study, wife in your kitchen!
Study, old-age pensioner!
You must prepare to take command now!
Locate yourself a school, homeless folk!
Go search some knowledge, you who freeze!
You who starve, reach for a book: it will be a weapon.
You must prepare to take command now.
Don't be afraid to question, comrades!
Never believe in faith, see for yourself!
What you yourself don't learn you don't know.
Question the reckoning - you yourself must pay it. 
Set down your finger on each small item, asking: where do you get this?
You must prepare to take command now!

I am also asking young people to work hard at what they do. I want to plead that this hard work not only be in their immediate occupation, but to work hard in the service of others. Service is not about income, it is about placing your skills, knowledge, time and other attributes at the disposal of others in their interests. I am aware that some people may earn lots of money and the easiest thing in the world is to write a cheque for some cause, but that is not service. Societies develop, and sustain the momentum thereof, because of the tradition of service.

In the realm that I work in, politics, the amount of logic available is frequently deficient. Yet we have in this country a leader who voluntarily set the terms for his occupation of the seat of highest authority - Nelson Mandela. A leader we should all emulate. As an active leader he was tough, wily and determined, but he possessed both the foresight necessary and charm required to persuade people of what was in their interests.

As part of preparations, as part of acquisition of values, as part of changing own lives in order to change this country, you have an amazing opportunity now in July. No, not just on the 18th in celebration of Madiba's 94th birthday, but it should be in every single day. Do something that will make a difference - you will soon understand the joys of being in service of others. That is how will cut your teeth for leadership. That is how and where you will learn. That is the measure of the accolade that we bestow young South Africans. Be worthy of the accolade.

>> Trevor Manuel is an ANC NEC member and Minister in The Presidency. This is an edited extract of his address to Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans. It was republished in ANC Today, the weekly online newsletter of the African National Congress.

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