These were the sentiments of politicians speaking at the National Youth Debate: Why do you deserve my vote? presented by Live Magazine SA.
The Economic Freedom Fighters, DA, Agang SA and the African National Congress answered questions from young people throughout the country submitted online, and from those present at the debate.
The youth were vocal on issues such as race, education, unemployment and corruption.
The panellists agreed that South Africans faced very different struggles to those endured prior to 1994, but they could not agree on what today’s common challenges were.
“Where do South Africans see there next fight and without fail it’s a question of saying I’m starving, I’m hungry, I’m poor, I don’t have a job and my future in this country is looking more bleak… that’s the struggle,” the DA’s Mmusi Maimane said.
He added that peoples’ rights such as the right to good health and a decent education must be protected, so that South Africans can speak about “true freedom that is based on our constitution”.
Agang SA’s chief operations officer, Andrew Gasnolar said, “The common struggle for South Africa today is that growing inequality; we live in a country of massive wealth but held by a few.” The inability to deal with inequalities such as structural inequalities and the apartheid geography, perpetuates and sentences South Africans to very different lives, he added.
Gasnolar and Maimane said in order to address the country’s challenges, South Africans needed a government that would accept accountability.
The EFF’s Gauteng premier candidate Dali Mpofu said the inequality in the country was a result of its past.
“The only way to redress that is to make sure that wealth is owned by the state,” he said. Mpofu added that redress through hard work would only widen inequality.
“The state is the only organisation that represents all people.”
ANC Youth League’s head of organising, Mawethu Rune said the ANC had made inroads in addressing the inequalities that faced South African since 1994, but still had a long way to go. “This common fight is that we must create a better life for all,” he said.
“There was a linkage between poverty and the colour of skin in this country… majority of its people whom are blacks are historically poor, inequality is high, unemployment is there and they are affected by that,” he added.
“Twenty years has proved that the ANC has made inroads into [the inequalities]. The manifesto that will be government policy on January 8th demonstrates that going forward.”
Meanwhile, Maimane said politics should not focus on race, but on issues. “That is not the way to hold a democracy,” he said. “It is about the issues, not your race.”
However, Rune responded by saying that the DA was a party for the white elite.
He said the DA represented segments of society that wanted the “current status quo to remain”.
Gasnolar added that race was used as a tool, instead of acknowledging that people are South Africans first.
