No reason for young South Africans to celebrate this Youth Day

The country’s second biggest union federation, South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), says the youth of today’s South Africa have little to celebrate on June 16, which is being commemorated Saturday.

Saftu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi says the political freedom achieved in 1994 has not led to economic freedom, and millions of young people still suffer from the same problems as those in 1976. “They are still left with an economic crisis, huge levels of unemployment and poverty, a dysfunctional education system and communities that are terrorised by criminal gangs and druglords,” he says.

The new federation was established after Vavi was expelled from Cosatu, and Cosatu’s biggest trade union, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), was also removed from the union body for its open opposition to the ANC’s neoliberal policies. Some of Cosatu’s former affiliates, such as Numsa and the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu), are now affiliated to Saftu.

The 1976 Students Uprising emanated from the rejection by Soweto schools of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction, imposed by the National Party-led white apartheid government. At least 200 protesting pupils were killed and scores injured when police opened fire on them.

READ MORE: June 16th memorial acre launched in Soweto

Vavi painted a dire picture of high unemployment for the youth of today despite the struggles by their 1976 heroes. He quoted the latest figures from Statistics SA indicating an unemployment rate of 38.2% among young people aged 15-34 in the first quarter of this year. This translated to more than one in every three young people in the labour market not having a job.

“Worse still, the report shows that some of these young people have become discouraged with the labour market, and they are also not building on their skills base through education and training. As a result of the 10.3 million persons aged 15–24 years, 32.4% (approximately 3.3 million) were not involved in employment, education or training, and were thus disengaged with the labour market and not playing any part in the economy.

“Saftu welcomes the fact that government was forced to announce the norms and standards following years of campaigning by the Equal Education campaign. The challenge is to transform these victories into reality,” Vavi said.

It acknowledged the government also provided free education in 85% of the public schools and free meals that made a big difference to pupils from poor communities. But the federation was concerned that, of the 1 185 198 learners who enrolled for Grade 1 in 2006, only 651 707 sat for the matric exams in 2017. This meant 533 491 learners – or 41% – did not even reach Grade 12.

“This means that more than half a million young South Africans, in just this one year’s intake, are left with no academic qualifications at all. In the current labour market these young people, plus those who failed matric, have virtually no chance of getting anything, but the most insecure, casual and underpaid employment, but are more likely to find no job at all,” Vavi said.

Saftu said even the 651 707 who passed matric last year faced a bleak future, as thousands would struggle for jobs, despite skills shortages in many sectors. Many matriculants do not have the requisite skills in the areas of shortage.

“One of the main reason is that government spending on basic education per learner over the past seven years declined by 8% in real terms. Despite increasing total expenditure in money terms by the rate of inflation, about 7% a year, there was a big increase in the number of new learners, as a result of a sharp rise in the birthrate between 2003 and 2005, which only came down slightly in 2008,” the union’s general secretary said.

Photojournalist Sam Nzima speaks to The Citizen during an interview in Nelspruit, 23 June 2014. Nzima photographed the image of a dying Hector Pieterson during a student protest on 16 June 1976. Picture: Refilwe Modise

The poverty situation was still dire in provinces such as the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo, as demonstrated by a 2016 study that suggested about 3 969 000 (63%) of South African children lived in poverty.

Saftu further said despite the spread of free school meals, a third of children in Gauteng and Free State were stunted as a result of chronic malnutrition, as shown by a recent Statistics SA report.

“The quality of schools in poor communities remains scandalous. The department of basic education has confirmed that, after 24 years of democracy, there are still 3 532 pit toilets at schools across the country, which put children’s lives at risk.

The department estimates it would cost about R7.8 billion to address the sanitation backlog in all schools, yet the budget for school infrastructure had been cut by R3.6 billion, which could have met nearly half this need. While Saftu fully backs the campaign for free, decolonised tertiary education for all, it would still exclude all those poor learners who had already been failed by the basic education system and had no, or not good enough, matric passes.

Saftu has invited all working class formations, including civil society organisations, youth and unemployed workers to a Working Class Summit to be held on July 21-22 to discuss these issues and others related to the fight for a truly free, democratic and equal society.

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