We have an abundance of energetic, creative young people rearing to go to contribute to prosperity for all in our beloved country. What is needed is for my generation of freedom fighters to acknowledge this talented young leadership, step aside and give them the space to lead.
Young creative leaders across many sectors are the key to helping us deal with the multiple emergencies upon us of poverty, inequality, with close to 75% of our youngest working-age people living in despair due to lack of opportunities to develop and use their talents and creativity to develop sustainable livelihoods.
Should we not use this year’s Youth Month as a moment to not only recommit to honour the contributions of young people to the freedom we are enjoying today, but to create space for youth to assume responsibilities in the public and private sectors to lead us again? Generations that fought for freedom need to move aside for the young lions and lionesses to take leadership in both the private and public sectors.
A case in point is the multiple award-winning entrepreneurs Karidas Tshintsholo, Founder and CEO of Khula, who, despite growing up in a shack in Tshwane, through hard work and determination, graduated from University of Cape Town in 2015. Today he runs a high impact enterprise supporting high-quality agribusinesses in the North West area.
Imagine if he did not have to scramble for resources to get going and sustain this critical work, but was given sufficient support by both National Empowerment Fund and the IDC? Is there a better way of supporting the emergence of black industrialists than by supporting successful young entrepreneurs like Karidas?
Creating a just society
This Youth Month presents an opportunity to reimagine our country into the just inclusive society so many fought and died for. The high levels of inequity and exclusion cannot the tackled by the same socio-economic system that created the challenges we face today. Existing compliance-based BBBEE policies not only perpetuate the colour-coded exclusionary economic system but have been systematically corrupted over the last 27 years to serve insiders at the expense of most citizens. Corruption is a thief of hope from people. Young people who are being systematically marginalised, are justifiably enraged and some have turned to violence and destruction.
Our failure to reimagine our society is also evident in the slowness in harnessing the power of technology to ensure that we leverage it for automation, digitalisation and e-commerce and enhancing basic needs provision including health and education. It is incomprehensible that we are still talking about spectrum roll-out in 2021 amid the Covid-19 pandemic and increasing imperatives of online connectivity. We are also inexplicably dragging our feet to utilise the 365 days of sunlight, wind, and many other natural endowments to produce renewable energy in abundance.
Recent announcements of significant shifts in energy generation policies by President Ramaphosa will inject energy into our moribund economy that has left so many people behind.
Transformation
Radical multidimensional transformation of our economy requires major shifts in mindsets of all citizens, including trade unions and leaders of our public and private sectors. Protecting jobs that are destined to be lost given the shift from low pay unskilled production and service jobs, is an injustice against young people.
We need to reimagine our society into one governed by the values of Ubuntu promoting interconnectedness and interdependence of all citizens. A just transition from the fossil fuel moribund economy towards a more inclusive one driven by renewable energy with a broader generation base is the only sure and tested way to promote wellbeing for all. Urban and rural areas stand to benefit from both the decentralisation of generation and utilisation of renewable energy.
The Presidential Commission on Climate Change and Just Transition is a great opportunity to reimagine our economy beyond the traditional economic approaches being abandoned elsewhere in the world. There is a growing global movement towards holistic approaches to wellbeing enhancing socio-economic development models.
Ayabonga Cawe, a gifted young leader and an Ambassador of WEALL, has just published a book An Economy on your Doorstep that is a must read. The book demonstrates how our society with an Ubuntu value system that is weakened but still alive, is sustaining many citizens at the bottom of our iniquitous system.
Leveraging this asset base of interconnectedness and interdependence as a platform for a just transition to a wellbeing for all socio-economic system would see us as a society known for promoting sustainable prosperity for all and a healthier planet.
Another area where reimagination is essential to support talent development and creativity amongst the millions of young people in our country who are unemployed and unskilled is to shift the estimated R30bn per year that is currently used to sustain a SETAs system towards more effective on-the-job training programs in both the public, private and civil society areas.
SETAs
The SETAs have by all measures failed to create the high-level skills appropriate for the complex 21st century socio-economic systems. They should be closed.
Young people deserve better than being treated as numbers to fill quotas to justify the high salaries and consultancies of connected elites who run these SETAs and are far removed from the needs and cries of excluded young people.
Can we imagine the high impact we could unleash by taking young people off the street corners of despair and putting them in places where they would be able to reclaim their self-worth and human dignity through on-the-job training programs across the sectors of our economy and society?
Imagine the impact of turning the challenges of failed waste management, poor socio-economic infrastructure, and inadequate basic services into opportunities for mobilisation and training young people for national service?
Imagine the transformative impact of starting such programs where the majority of excluded young people live? On-the-job training opportunities with the support of highly competent business management teams are low hanging fruits we should grasp as a matter of urgency to make this Youth Month a new beginning of inclusive development.
We are a country of abundant young leaders and talented entrepreneurs. All we need is to leverage this abundance to address the challenges of those young people left behind by our legacy and our failure to reimagine prosperity for all.
Shiluba Mawela, a highly qualified chartered accountant from UCT and now Managing Director at Tshiamo Impact Partners, also Co-Lead: National Taskforce for Impact Investing at Bertha Centre for Social Innovation, would be another great addition to such an effort. There are many more exemplary leaders out there.
Our society has a rich heritage of Africa’s Ubuntu and a youthful population to draw from to support all young people to become self-confident, critical thinking, creative citizens who contribute to building ours into a place of wellbeing and prosperity for all.
WRITER:
Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, Co-founder of ReimagineSA.
