16th June 2020- Youth Day
PRELUDE
“Liberation is childbirth, and a painful one. The man or woman who emerges is a new person, viable only as of the oppressor or oppressed contradiction is superseded by the humanisation of all people. Or to put it another way, the solution of this contradiction is born in the labour which brings into the world this new being: no longer oppressor, no longer oppressed, but human in the process of achieving freedom.”
Recent times have shown that the South African social, economic and political situation is not unique from the rest of the world. Our economy is under heavy strain, inequality is palpable and the growing urgency for a budget designed to create much-needed jobs, economic stimulation, infrastructure development, evaluation, health and other apex priorities of the State has been reprioritised to heighten the fight against the pandemic.
South Africa is a developmental State fraught with persistent challenges ranging from poverty, unemployment, stunted family structures, seemingly insurmountable Gender-Based Violence and growing inequality, all this at the face unchecked greed and corruption.
The outbreak of the COVID 19 pandemic has forced the global economy to shut down, inevitably witnessing the closure of many industries, resulting in a job blood bath. In our context as a country, with high levels of unemployment, abject poverty and widening inequality; young people have been at the periphery of the economy in a sea of unemployment which is forecasted at 35% in December 2020 and inflation at 4.7%. This is all in the backdrop of collusive conduct of monopolies and price-fixing at a grand scale. This is all at the expense of poor and working-class South Africans, indicative of the moral bankruptcy of Capitalism.
Our country’s economic outlook predicts bleakly for young people. 16th June 2020 marks the 44thanniversary of the Soweto Uprising since the tragic day in 1976.
We meet at a time when the State attempts to grow the economy through a number of economic interventions, the rapid spread of the pandemic which has spiralled out of control, having reached deadly proportions. Economic growth has been punctuated by factors beyond anyone’s control due to the closure of the global economy, dampening any prospects of accelerated growth and strides to rescue young people from the hopelessness of poverty and the mortifications of unemployment.
Young people have envisioned 2020 as a year of hope presented by the African National Congress’s Radical Economic Transformation blueprint adopted in the 54th National Conference held in Nasrec, Johannesburg.
As the country commemorates the 44th anniversary of the 1976 student uprising, what is the impact of Covid-19, what are the prospects for the future?
YOUTH STRUGGLES POST COVID-19
The South African Students Congress (SASCO) emerges from its 21st National Conference held in Irene, Pretoria, with a determination to consolidate efforts in building a formidable youth movement with the capacity to advance the aspirations of young people. This is a contribution to the National Democratic Revolution, capable and visionary State in investing in the youth of the country as an investment in the future.
Oliver Reginald Tambo once affirmed that “a country that neglects its youth neglects its future”. In investing in the future, programmes deliberately designed to empower young people with skills and expertise equal and relevant to the development needs and strategy of a developmental State geared at the progressive emancipation of the most marginalised. These are necessary interventions in the current testing times triggered by the diabolical effects of the pandemic on growth and development.
As SASCO we have resolved to instil life into the progressive Youth Alliance. We must take stock of the weaknesses in the current state of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL), the amorphous nature of the youth alliance in institutions of higher learning and the role of SASCO in societal transformation and the worrying disjuncture between students who graduate from institutions versus the number absorbed by the formal labour market. This is despite thousands of graduates produced every year yet loiter the streets of the country despondent and penniless.
2020 will go down as one of the most devastating years in modern human history. Young people are trapped in inescapable poverty; the government is constrained in its mandate to create much-needed jobs and a conducive environment where each individual can realize his/her full potential.
In 2020 the small, medium and micro enterprises are shrinking, some closed and some trapped by massive debts. Unemployment is rising due to industrial collapse and company closure.
As we characterise and assess the present times we do so with a view to designing strategies to rebuild the economy post the pandemic. We can only do so if we look deeply and honestly at ourselves and our collective capacity and resolve within the context of the “People Shall Govern” to better prepare ourselves to navigate the murky waters ahead with an understanding of the necessity of building a society that truly represents of the collective aspirations of its people, its future; its Youth.
Its ravaging effects and the rise in infections, death and a stagnant global economy attests to its novelty.
One element that would help us surmount the colossal challenge of reinvigorating the economy and to shorten the life of the pandemic is our civic role in the fight against the pandemic. This aptly represents” The People Shall Govern” in elementary terms and its true meaning in the revolutionary context.
” The People Shall Govern” is a fortification in defence of the democratic State as opposed to a qualitative approach that reduces the masses of our people to statistics as opposed to key drivers, shapers and influencers of the country’s developmental trajectory. As citizens, we cannot reside in the comfort of welfarism and mortgaging our future to the State without contributing to the country’s future.
At the early stages of the pandemic, the country across the political divide united to fight the pandemic, the masses of our people voluntary subjected themselves to a new form of democratic dictatorship, triggered by the lockdown declared by the government.
Political commentators across the country viewed this as a limitation of human rights given to our people by the Constitution. As SASCO we view this as a progressive feat where human dignity, health, shelter, water, sanitation, food security and life were restored and elevated to the apex of the government’s priorities. The pandemic exposed glaring inequalities between the rich and the poor yet united the nation on common purpose and vision. {saving lives}
The social and economic relief to stimulate the economy, to stem the tide of retrenchments, to float businesses and to insulate the economy from total collapse needs contextualisation. This is critical in order to shut a populist view that government cannot maintain the status quo beyond Covid-19.
As earlier alluded to Covid-19 has been detrimental and too costly on the global economy. Equally, ours was not spared the damage.
In ensuring economic stability, job and food security, health funding and the provision of other crucial services during the subsistence of the pandemic, the country had to stretch the fiscus, and borrow money to fund the shortfall. This happened when the country’s deficit was too huge, and rating agencies downgraded the country at a regrettable time.
This provides an opportunity to fight the monster of racism, to build a private sector that is pro-poor and allegiant to the democratic State as demonstrated by its investment in the fight against the pandemic.
In light of the above; Marx in the 18th Brumaire of Louise Bonaparte argues,” Man make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generation weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.”
INTERNATIONALISM
SASCO exists on the four cardinal pillars, one of which includes international work. If we were to understand the world, it is critical to assess the balances of power in relation to development as a way of repositioning and realigning our strategies and tactics. These include our foreign policy in order to sharpen and reshaped our strategic perspective on transformation.
The student movement exists within a new world order shaped and influenced by the world economic outlook and navigating within an international community intertwined and built on mutual cooperation for shared prosperity and development.
The world is gradually shifting from uni-polarism to a new order of cooperative coexistence. The novel coronavirus is an indictment on global superpowers and how they react to a global crisis. It is this crisis that exposes capitalism and plunges it deeper into a crisis owing to its inherent shortcomings that have put profit over people and narrow efficiency over livelihood. It may be prudent to revisit former President Thabo Mbeki’s assertion for the necessity of an RDP of the soul.
On the contrary, Communism, which was previously portrayed as the worst of all an unworkable repressive and exploitative economic systems in the eye of the capitalist economies, that thrive on slave wages to the detriment of their people, intervened to salvage human existence from extinction. As SASCO we salute the government and the people of Cuba for their leadership and the provision of much-needed relief across the globe. This is a relationship that spans many years from the fight against apartheid and ensuring peace and stability on the African continent, the liberation of South Africa, Angola and Namibia.
Southern African Development Countries (SADC)
The COVID-19, like all the epidemics that have come before it, challenges the systems of each nation. Most importantly the individual member states and its people have had no other option but to think of each other and survival of every one of us.
As the student movement we have the following proposals for considerations;
- State-to-state relations;
We call on the progressive South African government to strengthen its relations with neighbouring countries beyond diplomacy and existing preferential trade agreements. We call on our state to appreciate the economic, social and political challenges facing our immediate neighbouring countries with particular reference to Zimbabwe. The development and growth of our country must be directly linked to the development of all SADC countries. There must be infrastructural development in kind geared at stimulating trade.
- Parastatals/ State owned institutions
The state-owned institutions like Eskom and Transnet must lead the charge of revitalising the infrastructure of our neighbouring countries to strengthen our relations, boost trade relations and transform the lives of fellow African brothers and sisters. We are of the strong view that these state-owned institutions must be at the forefront of these developments, including the skills development of the youth on all our SADC countries. We are of the firm view that this intervention would go a long way in revitalising our collective economies.
- Private sector buy-in
In the process of revitalising and renewing economies of SADC countries, the private sector must be forced to buy-in and invest economies of our countries and be at the forefront of resolving systematic challenges we face. Our governments must have pass legislation that enforces the private sector to invest in economies of our countries.
- Institutions of higher learning
The growing number of enrolments of Zimbabwean students in South Africans universities is worrying and has led the SASCO to question the state of higher education in Zimbabwe. We are convinced that our universities must develop working relations that will aid the state of post-schooling and training across the SADC Region.
NON RACIALISM
South Africa is founded on a Bill of Rights that elevates human dignity and life above any other right. The pandemic has provided an opportunity to have an in-depth and broader understanding of the nature of the health system as the country implements the National Health System for universal health care of its people. This is to close the inequality gap, to build a non-sexist and non-racial country founded on equality.
The pandemic has exposed cracks of racism and all forms of attacks from the noble interventions of the democratic State, to rescue the country from the economic doldrums. Black economic empowerment and economic development policies is an option but an instrument designed to level the comic playing fields and equal participation of small businesses and the entrance of new ventures into the streaming economy as opposed to consumerism.
SASCO condemns all forms of racism. As the movement, we join the international community in condemning the racist Trump administration, justice and police system that respects no human rights but reduces Blacks to secondary citizenship as apartheid did to our people.
In the spirit of international solidarity, we join the world in the Struggle for justice and human rights. Ending racism is not debatable. It must end now.
GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
As we commemorate Youth Day, young people should assume centrality and leadership in the fight against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and any form of violence. Over the youth month period, there is a need to intensify the fight against violence against women and children.
We must look long and hard at the residual effect of the glaring effect of migrant labour, as a result of industrial capitalism, on the family structure. The corrosive nature of market capitalism on the perceptions of women in the economy. All this, in the South African context, was the tenant on the establishment of colonial capitalism which was not only exploitative but extractions in nature and had strong racial and gender permeations. It is this history of capitalism, which valued the physical ability for the man to perform more extensive labour than women in industrial economies that laid the basis for thinking that men are superior to women and that men can claim some sort of ownership over women. We need to look at the deep-rooted classist stratifications that still effect toxic mentalities of ownership of women in our society. We encourage our structures and young people to have deep discussions about the factors that affect gender-based violence in our society, and mechanism we must implore as a student movement in order to not only curb this issue but to rid our society of all manifestations of toxic masculinity.
Statistics reveal a surge in cases of domestic violence during the course of the lockdown. Notably and impressively, the ban on alcohol has shown a dramatic decrease in crime and other forms of violence.
We call upon young people to refrain from acts inimical to societal stability and order by:
- Ensuring more focus on personal development initiatives;
- Community-building programmes
- Sport and healthy lifestyles
- Education and training
- Entrepreneurship and economic investment
- SMME growth, business development, coaching and mentoring
- Crime prevention strategies
- Community stokvels, job creation and poverty education ventures
HIGHER EDUCATION
In investing in the future, higher education funding and access have been one of the contentious issues confronting the student movement. The pandemic has exposed wider inequalities in higher education funding, technological infrastructure and resources.
In the period of information technology driven by the 4th Industrial Revolution, the country needs to urgently invest in technology. Accessible and affordable data needs to be speeded up to ensure a seamless reintegration of students into the academic society and the resumption of academic activities.
As SASCO we welcome the ANC leadership on the fight against the deadly and contagious pandemic. On the basis of its framework and approach to fighting coronavirus. As Sasco we unleash our brigade in support of the ANC’s initiatives and takes advantage of the following measures in the fight against the pandemic:
- Support
- Awareness
- Prevention
- Facilitation and
- Collaboration
The fight against the pandemic and its dissipation requires a coordinated approach and mobilisation of resources from all sectors of the community. As a patriotic duty and contribution to the fight against the scourge Sasco trigger its community and student work pillars by mobilizing all its members and students, including the progressive youth alliance in the fight against coronavirus.
We call upon higher education authorities to ensure that students learn in a condition conducive to learning free from the virus. We call upon our members to adhere to all regulations, to wear masks and to wash their hands.
A NEW YOUTH FRIENDLY ECONOMY
The World Economic Forum (2020), “How will the African manage the post-COVID 19” economy paints a gloomy picture of an African economy post the pandemic. This according to the World Economic Forum is largely characterised as follows:
- African economies are in danger of marginalization as a result of de-globalization;
- African State can only deal with their debt burdens through renewed growth in their economies; and
- A shift to digital could delay an economic recovering many developing countries.
The WEF analysis and report recommends three “Ds” as part of the economic recovery plan post-COVID-19. These are Digitization, debt and fiscal sustainability of countries and de-globalization.
The global economy is still reeling from the 2008 economic recession, debt deficit, a weak tax base and high inflation.
It is a common course that the South African economy is in a hiatus, thus punctuating all endeavours and initiatives to create much-needed jobs and to fight poverty and to restore the dignity of young people.
Through the social relief fund and social grants, the economic stimulus package designed for the SMMEs, we welcome the government’s leadership and intervention to create an economic buffer in difficult times.
Our 21st Congress noted the youth paralysis owing to the death of the ANCYL. Our economic development approach, SMME growth, youth empowerment, job creation and poverty alleviation strategies warrant a multidimensional, a systematic and a well-coordinated approach that involves a vibrant youth movement.
Glaring and inherent weaknesses within progressive youth alliance and the absence of the ANCYL weakens our efforts to implement of Congress resolutions and to create jobs. A weak alliance partner entails a weak youth alliance which inhibits progress and stall development. We call upon the speedy resuscitation of the ANC Youth League and the strengthening of the youth alliance partners.
As an approach to community work, Sasco views the social relief fund for unemployed youth and communities not as a freebie. To every right there is a duty, hence our contextualisation of “The People Shall Govern” as the assumption of leadership and centrality in community development.
We call upon the unemployed to invest their energies in community development initiatives to build sustainable ways of to make the source of income. s
In the design of its recovery plan, the mooted WEF recovery plan should not be seen as a one size fits all panacea. South Africa will have to use its own strategies tailored specifically to its situation.
It is absurd to recruit learners, young people in particular, into old and saturated service careers. The future demands a new cutting edge, technology savvy working-class abreast with the requirements of the 4th Industrial Revolution market. In the information age, where, almost every service will be digitized, we must cultivate a new breed of scholarship which will look into the development, modernization and advancement of our country’s economy, infrastructure and skills reserve.
Nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, robotics and mechatronics are careers that we must advertise to the current generation of Colleges and University students in preparation for the jobs that will be available in 10 years’ time. Cloud computing is no longer a product, but service and the boundless reach of the internet will further entrench international interconnectedness and cut the border red tape linked with trade and international markets.
The night economy must be localised in the Republic and mirror the rest of the developed world as a new driver of the economy. The wheels of the labour market must turn 24/7 and the working day must not end abruptly at 4 pm or at 8 pm or hit the dead brake on Friday until Monday morning. In this manner, we hit two birds with one stone: reducing unemployment and increasing the economic activity to a full 24-hour working day.
This will impact on the strengthening of the security services of the country, particularly at night, and decrease the prevalence of GBV and other violent crimes as markets will need to be closely guarded thus the social security of the citizenry heightened. The two-shift system will have to make way for a three-shift system in compliance with labour laws and international treaties that the country is a party to. More work, more jobs. South Africa, a country that never sleeps, it sleeps when all the triple contradictions are met
CONCLUSION
The future is uncertain. Leadership and decisiveness are needed in more critical times. The economy will take many years to convalesce. The pandemic has heralded a new world order and introduced a novel way of doing things differently and on purpose and based on urgency for the benefit of society.
This tempo needs to be maintained and sustained if we were to accelerate the goals of the National Development Plan, whose pace, inevitably was largely impacted upon by the pandemic and budget reprioritisation
SASCO appreciates the leadership of the African National Congress in the most testing times since the assumption of power and the transition from apartheid to democracy.
We extol all frontline workers for their strong leadership and service to society.
We call upon the civil society to contribute to ensuring that the country sails the treacherous waters without hitting an iceberg. Disunity, racism and opportunism would reverse all the regain registered since the introduction of the lockdown. Flattening the curve would be a pipedream.
With our scant resources, competing needs and mammoth responsibilities we have proved that planning, unity, patience, consultation, patriotism, collective leadership are necessary ingredients to a brighter future.
Sasco is cognisant of the tough battles that lie ahead. Is addressing and surmounting the difficult hurdles, our immediate task is to reshape and realign our strategies and tactics. Ours should be a unity of purposes, hence our revolutionary mantra of shaping students unity for the battles ahead.
“Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes a myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion.”
I thank you.
Yours in Revolution
SASCO President
Bamanye Matiwane
SOUTH AFRICAN STUDENTS CONGRESS
LUTHULI HOUSE
64 PIXLEY KA SEME STREET
JOHANNESBURG
16 JUNE 2020