Recent events in the course of South Africa’s social and political process have led many to pose the question as to whether youth leagues, agencies and subsidies are still useful. And indeed, such a question has been raised with a good measure of justification. This article seeks to unpack the question and put forward justifications and shortcomings of each of the mentioned.
Concerning youth leagues, it is important to note that they still play and important role in our society in so far as they bring together, coordinate and organise the aspirations of young people into coherent programmes that can be achieved within the political process. Since the youth is affected by a series of problems Monique Marks asserts that, “One way to substantially alleviate the manifest “problems of youth” is the organising of youth into youth structures that are legitimate to youth and which have a strong, experienced and informed leadership. Such organisations of the youth have in the past, particularly in the 1980s, formed the base of developing shared norms, values, expectations and aspirations.” That said, taking into account the current atrophying of youth leagues accompanied by leadership crises and squabbles for resources, it is important that these foregoing problems be dealt with to return youth leagues to their initial purpose for which they were formed.
On the other hand agencies have proved to be much controversial. For example, the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) has been accused numerous times for being a conduit for enriching a few people aligned to the governing party, the African National Congress (ANC) and neglecting is sole responsibility of youth empowerment, regardless of political affiliation. Criticising the NYDA, Democratic Alliance (DA) Youth League spokesperson, Reagen Allen, was quoted by the Mail & Guardian as having said: “The agency employs 500 people at an average cost of R29 000 per staff member per month. We have known for a long time that the ANC Youth League-aligned NYDA board is running an employment agency for pals. It is only now that we can see just how focused on staffing, to the exclusion of real development, that the board is, to the point that its plans are simply nonsensical.”
There is currently a row concerning the introduction of the youth wage subsidy which should have been introduced in April this year. The government has set aside R5-billion over a three-year period for the subsidy. The National Treasury put forward the subsidy as a way of tackling unemployment which currently is at 50 % for those under 25 years, accounting for 30 % of total unemployment. It is estimated that this subsidy, designed for employers who take on first-time workers could create 178 000 net new jobs at a cost of R28 000 each, Treasury said. But its implementation has been stalled by some organisations like the trade union federation Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which has been the biggest stumbling block, and from other individuals at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC). COSATU Secretary General, Zwelinzima Vavi, addressing parliament early this year said, “We don’t think that the youth subsidy will address the crisis of unemployment unless you recognise that it’s not different to other structural problems like education, which is in a dire crisis.”
Instead, COSATU and the ANC youth league have proposed a job-seekers’ grant which would mean paying out a stipend to those who are job-hunting. But the DA has noted that this grant “misdiagnoses the problem”. It argues that the problem is not that it takes too long for people to find jobs but that there are not enough jobs in the country.
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