Deputy President Paul Mashatile has delivered his keynote address at the government’s National Youth Day commemoration event in Potchefstroom, North West.

IOL reported on Sunday that Mashatile will stand in for President Cyril Ramaphosa as the keynote speaker, as Ramaphosa travelled to Canada for the G7 Leaders’ Summit.

In his keynote address, Mashatile took the opportunity to reflect on what he termed the major victories of the democratic dispensation.

“While challenges remain, allow me to briefly reflect on some of the major victories that our democratic dispensation has registered in advancing youth empowerment since 1994,” said Mashatile.

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“Firstly, at the Basic Education level, we have transformed the matric pass rate from 58% in 1994 to a historic 87.3% in 2024. This is the result of three decades of making education an apex priority of government.

“Our basic education system has gradually transformed whilst redressing the generational legacies of Verwoerd’s Bantu education system. While we are not yet where we wish to be, we are also far from the inequality and disregard inherited in 1994,” he said.

Secondly, Mashatile said in higher education, South Africa’s National Student Financial Aid Scheme has been a catalyst for widening access to higher education for the marginalised. 

The scheme has grown from a modest budget of R33 million in 1991, serving only 7,240 students, to over R52 billion today, funding more than 1.1 million students at universities and TVET colleges.

“As a result of this sustained investment, the demographic composition of our higher education system has been fundamentally transformed. In 1994, there were 266,190 black students, representing 50.4% of the total student population. By 2020, that number had grown to 862,313 black students, constituting 80% of enrolments,” said Mashatile.

He said South Africa has also met and surpassed gender parity in higher education participation rates, with over 60% of graduates from colleges and universities now being young women.

Mashatile said at the beginning of this month, 205,000 young people were placed in jobs through Phase 5 of the Basic Education Employment Initiative as part of the Presidential Employment Stimulus.

“In 2023, as our democratic dispensation turned 30, the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities made a commitment to move beyond advocacy and begin to conceive nationwide transformative projects, with a particular focus on poor and marginalised communities,” he said.

Earlier, Mashatile said on Youth Day South Africa honours and pays tribute to the valiant and fearless young people who stood at the forefront of the liberation struggle on June 16, 1976. 

“Regardless of their youthful stature, the youth of 1976 stood strong in the face of the oppressive system of the apartheid regime. They faced death with unwavering determination, fuelled by a vision of equal rights and a more just society,” said Mashatile.

“It has been 49 years since that significant day, yet we will always remember the student leaders like Tsietsi Mashinini and Hastings Ndlovu who orchestrated the mass demonstration that transformed our nation. 

“We must never forget those who joined the long list of martyrs and paid the ultimate price for our freedom. These are the young brave souls who fought for a dream that they never saw come to life, a dream that continues to inspire and guide us,” he said.

By taking action in 1976 against an enforced Afrikaans language as the exclusive medium of instruction in African schools, Mashatile said those young learners were carrying out the path of struggle defined by their forefathers through the Freedom Charter.

“Ten days from now, we will commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Freedom Charter. The adoption of the Freedom Charter on June 26, 1955, and the Soweto Uprising on June 16, 1976, are significant milestones in South Africa’s journey towards freedom,” said Mashatile.

Youth Day this year is held under the theme, “Skills for a Changing World—Embracing Youth for Meaningful Economic Participation”.

The deputy president conceded that the reality is that many young people in South Africa are not living the future they hoped for. 

“They are confronted by high levels of unemployment, inequality, and a lack of access to opportunities, especially in the digital world. As government, we acknowledge that, for these young people, their reality remains untenable, undesirable, and unsustainable,” he said.

jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za

IOL News 

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