Extracts from my speech at a UDM Youth Day Rally, on Sunday, 16 June 2013 at Blybank Taxi Rank (Carletonville, Gauteng) for full text, go to udm.org.za … Every year we commemorate the sacrifices made by our youth on 16 June 1976 in the Soweto. The iconic picture of Hector Pieterson, brought home to many people, within and outside South Africa, the unfairness and brutality of the Apartheid regime. What happened that day is a testimony to the innate strength and tenacity of young South Africans. Our youth knows what is right, and what is wrong. They have the courage to stick to their convictions and stand their ground in the face of terrible odds. The UDM is convinced that the youth of today, across racial lines, is capable of consolidating and protecting the order that was ushered in after all the suffering, sacrifice and dedication. … Yes, we have attained political freedom, but much still needs to be done to realise the dreams and the aspirations of our fallen heroes and heroines. … Despite the major strides that have been made, unemployment is ever increasing; poverty and homelessness are everywhere, crime holds people hostage in their homes, our hospitals have become places of death, our education system fails to provide adequate skills for employment and the majority is still without property. … South Africans, young and old, daily ask some of the following questions: • Why have subsidies, intended to help labour intensive industries, disappeared? • Why was our skilled and unskilled labour force never absorbed into labour intensive industries? • Why did the promise of thousands of job opportunities never realised; and why has government failed to combat poverty and joblessness? • Why was the dream of free education, which was promised in 1994, never realised? • Why do hospitals and clinics run out of medicines, and lack proper equipment? • Why do doctors, nurses, teachers and civil servants (such as soldiers and police officers) earn paltry salaries and why do they leave for greener pastures? • Why do we loose billions of Rands because of the capital and skills flight - with one in four young South Africans wanting to leave? • Why are our infrastructure, government buildings and roads falling apart? and • Why, most importantly, is the gap between the rich and poor still widening? These are all legitimate questions and the UDM has been advocating for an Economic Indaba to be hosted to find solutions to these fundamental challenges. … The UDM wants all stakeholders, especially the youth, to participate in such an Indaba, for it is the youth that will inherit this mess. It is therefore the youth of today, who should claim their space and devise the solutions of tomorrow. … I am not saying we should not complain, of course we should, because South Africans have a contract with their Government called the Constitution. Just as we citizens are accountable for our actions, so our government must be held accountable. We will keep making noise; speaking our minds and making our feelings known to those who lead us. But, we must draw the line somewhere in the sand and say: “You know what; I am going to make this work! I, as a young South African, take charge of my destiny.” … Become servants of your communities and peers, by making yourselves available as councillors, Members of Legislatures and/or Parliament. Don’t stay on the sidelines and be mere spectators. The current crop of leaders in the ruling party is only interested in one thing, using the remainder of their terms to get rich at your expense. … This is the message I want you to leave with today. Stand up, make your voices heard, claim your space and if you don’t like what the ruling party is doing, vote with your feet. Don’t wait for the powers that be to change the current situation. They have not done so in eighteen years, and they will take another eighteen years if you allow them to abuse you and you will be left to explain to your . Thank you.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 11:39:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015