COSATU Commemorates Youth Day
On Youth Day 2011, the Congress of South African Trade Unions salutes the heroes and heroines of 16 June 1976, whose fearless confrontation with the forces of the apartheid dictatorship paved the way for the freedom and democracy we enjoy today.
This year, as we celebrate 35 years since the 1976 uprising we ought to remember that this revolt was not merely about the introduction of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in black schools but was also a response to the growing misery in black townships as a result of apartheid capitalism.
The youth uprising cannot be divorced from the 1973 workers' strikes which began in Durban. The 1976 revolt was born of the struggle against poverty, unemployment, a poor education system for blacks, hostile labour relations and squalid living conditions in the hostels and the townships. 1976 revived the faith of the people in their organisations and that indeed apartheid must be brought to its knees.
The challenge meted out by the working class against apartheid councillors in the eighties and the offensive against Bantustan authorities drew inspiration from the courageous generation of 1976. The alliance of the youth and workers against apartheid, despite serious challenges, was strengthened during this period.
As we commemorate 35 years since the 1976 uprising, we note the terrible socio-economic conditions of young people in this country today. Young African men have an unemployment rate of 39% by the narrow definition of employment, and 48% by the definition which includes discouraged work seekers.
Young people under 29 make up 27% of the employed. If you include those up to 34 years the number increases to 44%. 31% of African men earn under R1000 per month compared with 1% of young white women. 46% of young African women earn under R1000 per month. And young workers are more likely to be in informal, contract and part-time employment.
Many young people still toil in factories and farms, die in the mines, are permanent temps in the retail and wholesale sector and are super-exploited reel by labour brokers. Although government has managed to get 1.4 million people on Aids antiretroviral treatment, we still languish under a malfunctioning public healthcare system.
This youth day should be dedicated to transforming our education system, which is currently failing most working-class children, who are trapped in a system in which 70% of matric passes are accounted for by only 11% of former model C schools; 70% of our schools do not have libraries; 60% do not have laboratories; 60% of children are pushed out of the schooling system before they reach grade 12. Millions of young people are still excluded from accessing education beyond secondary school.
Our public education system, as in the apartheid period, hits working-class children the most. The price that today's youth pay for passing through the dysfunctional schooling system is simply too high. It is a price of high unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse, high HIV infection rates and many other social problems. The only way to stay true to the vision of Solomon Mahlangu, Andrew Zondo and many others who died for is for all of us to play a role in ensuring that our public schools function.
We are sitting on a ticking time bomb of youth unemployment, poverty and mounting impatience.
Whilst we note the government's commitment to create five million jobs over ten years, this can only work if there are proper monitoring mechanisms accompanied by a commitment to restructuring our economy on to a new growth path so that we can escape from the economy we inherited from colonialism - which is over-dependent on export of raw materials, and dominated by the mining and financial sectors - and move to an economy based on labour-intensive manufacturing industry.
The last thing young people in this country need is a youth wage subsidy which is will only enrich capitalists and further segment the working class.
This ticking time bomb has already begun to explode in the service delivery protests that we see around the country. Left unresolved, these conditions, like the socio-economic conditions of the black working class in the 1970s, will propel young people to strive for change and chart their own routes out of the misery of unemployment and under-employment, poverty, disease, slum housing and the bucket system.
COSATU notes that this Youth Day also coincides with the start of the 24th National Conference of the ANCYL held under the theme Economic Freedom in our Lifetime. We take this opportunity to congratulate the ANCYL on the sterling work over decades, and reflected today in its discussion documents, particularly around the transformation of our economy, the creation of decent jobs and the realisation of all the Freedom Charter demands.
We wish the ANCYL a successful conference, marked by robust discussions and the zeal to make revolutionary reforms in order to transform the lives of millions of young people in this country.
Statement issued by Phindile Kunene, Shopsteward Editor, COSATU, June 15 2011
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