Lindiwe Muzibuko has spoken about the importance of Generation Y, but what does she mean? The term Generation X is often used to refer to those born from the early 1960s through the early 1980s. Generation Y is Lindiwe’s term to refer to those born in the mid-80’s onwards. The Mandela generation. My generation.
Ours is a generation of leaders whose task it will be to forge a prosperous future for this country. Focusing on the future, however, is not easy to do when the pain of the past is still felt by so many today. The legacy of our past continues to stifle the best of their talents, dreams and aspirations. And it traps people in a cycle of poverty and deprivation from which they feel there is little chance of escape.
It is indeed difficult to speak of hope when, for so many in our country, it does not seem likely ever to materialise. But to ignore hope, and the dream of what could be, by focusing only on what has been, is perhaps the most demoralising consequence of our past. It locks us into its vicious cycle, it holds our greatest talents and abilities to ransom, and prevents us from having what the brave men and women who fought for our freedom wanted us to have: the opportunity to craft a future of our own design, based on our own determination - the opportunity to have an opportunity.
This is what Steve Biko wanted. He believed that you cannot succeed if you do not see yourself as an equal. He wanted black South Africans to unshackle their minds and liberate their determination. He wanted to catalyse their potential, which had been so intentionally stifled. He died in the name of this cause.
It is also what Robert Sobukwe wanted. When he marched against the pass laws, he didn't do so only in the name of justice. He was motivated by the desire to create a South Africa based on equality and freedom for all, where every single citizen could realise his or her ambitions, and reap the rewards of their abilities. The pass signified, in the most demoralising way, the very antithesis of this ideology. Indeed, it stifled hope, while Robert Sobukwe wanted to set hope free.
It is what Helen Suzman wanted. As she bravely stood alone and firm in defence of individual rights and freedoms, she signalled to all South Africans that there was hope for equality in our future. When she read out accounts of torture in detention to jeers from her opponents in Parliament; used her privilege as an MP to conduct unannounced visits to police stations where human rights violations were taking place; and donned the black sash in quiet protest against the abuse which so many of her countrymen endured, she did so not only in the name of freedom, but also because she believed in the future.
And it is why the father of our nation, Nelson Mandela, endured so much for this country. He did so in the hope that all our citizens could be afforded the opportunity to realise their potential. It was he who said "... to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."
The former President's sacrifices taught us that the quest to maintain and enhance our freedom means more than focusing only on when we are not free - it is about striving daily to ensure that we take advantage of the freedom we have right now.
The sacrifices of these great men and women were made striving for ideals that were always forward-looking. They were rooted in the pursuit of dreams - the notion of freedom through opportunity.
What do I mean by freedom through opportunity? Often we interpret our freedom in South Africa as an event. One which took place in 1994, and need never be revisited. True freedom, however, does not begin and end at the ballot box. The attainment of substantive freedom can be measured by the extent to which South Africans are able to exercise choice in their daily lives, unencumbered by the baggage of the past or the circumstances of their birth.
For the majority of South Africans, life is not made up of a series of open choices. Rather, every aspect of their daily life is invariably a series of invidious alternatives, more likely to lock them in the cycle of poverty and deprivation than free them from it.
The real challenge for the leaders of Generation Y is to extend the availability of real choices to more and more people, so that they too can begin to experience freedom through opportunity.
While our past is full of heroes whose contributions are written in our history books, we can see these ideals in the smaller, but no less selfless actions of ordinary South Africans. Like those parents who make enormous sacrifices to ensure that their children receive an education that will help overcome the circumstances into which they were born. Because of their actions, today there are young South Africans across this country who are inspired to create an even better future for their children. They will become the heroes of our generation; heroes who will positively shape the future of this country, as the leaders of the past did for us. And they are not alone. Indeed, ours is a generation of heroes-in-waiting. But there is much to do if we are to create the space for the growth and development of this generation.
The enormous potential of South Africa's young people, which is clear to anyone who cares to see, must be carefully nurtured. It must be encouraged and amplified, and never stifled. For many of our young people, this is a race against time.
South Africa faces the very real possibility that we might today be seeing the beginnings of another lost generation.
The following statistic keeps me awake at night: 33% of South Africans aged 15 to 24 years old are neither employed nor engaged in any form of education, skills development or training. That amounts to 3.3 million members of Generation Y for whom the future is a gaping void of hopelessness. And as this year draws to a close, and the annual Matric results are released, the story which will not make headline news is that of the thousands more who will soon join this cohort, by either failing Matric or leaving school with Senior Certificates which offer them no guarantees for a future of stability or prosperity.
What is to become of these young people if they are not afforded the opportunity to build lives they value? How can we prevent Generation Y, with all its wonderful potential, from going to waste, trapped in the perpetual cycle of poverty and despair?
This is the challenge which faces our generation of leaders. Our forefathers fought to free this country. Our fight is to extend opportunity to all South Africans. To do this, we need to understand that it is not the responsibility of the government to ensure the equality of outcomes. The role of the state is to create the foundation upon which our people can prosper, and to remove the hindrances which prevent South Africans from realising their dreams.
We must encourage ingenuity, innovation, imagination and an enthusiasm to learn. We must replicate the success of schools that succeed against the odds. We must value our teachers and we must reward teachers who are valuable. We must assist in creating opportunities, and never in reducing them.
Ours must be a generation of leaders who put the people and their individual success first; who strive for excellence at all times, and accept nothing less; who see the potential in everyone, not just in some; and who understand the importance of disseminating knowledge, not hiding the truth. Ours must be a generation of leaders who are committed to enhancing the freedom of others through the extension of opportunities. We must be mindful of the past, but hopeful for the future. This is the challenge faced by our generation of leaders.
In 2014, three million young South Africans will vote for the first time. The Mandela generation, born at the beginning of an era, will, 20 years after our first democratic elections, have the opportunity to cast their votes. They will have transitioned, like the democratic state they were born into, into adulthood. They will be faced with the contradiction of inheriting the consequences of apartheid, with little or no personal memory of its inhumanity. And so they will be concerned most of all with the challenges of the present. With youth unemployment already at 51% in 2011, by 2014 many will be unemployed. They will demand answers, and they deserve them. But this generation of leaders won't simply be able point to the past to give them these answers. We will have to show what we have done for them. We will have to show them what we plan to do to make their lives better. We will need to inspire them to take charge of their own destinies. We will have to be visionaries, always looking to the future.
And so 2014 has the potential to be an epoch-defining year. It will separate more clearly than ever before those who base their politics on the future, on the achievement of dreams, on hope, and on freedom through opportunity, from those who remain rooted in the past, without direction.
The Arab Spring of this year, which brought democratic reform to a number of states in North Africa, demonstrated just this. It showed the world the power that our generation wields. There will be many more ‘Arab Springs' across Africa. As the world's youngest continent, African youth will dictate the progress of this century. I suspect that our Spring will come in 2019, not through rioting and violence, but through the ballot box. And it will be as a consequence of our generation. A generation geared towards solutions; which craves opportunities; and which looks to the future.
As young South African politicians, we must embark on this journey. We must lead our generation into the future. We can never forget to look back, but we must never lose our willingness to carry on, eyes on the future.
Our Constitution is a reflection of our forefathers' fight against injustice. We must use it as our compass, and go forward to chart this new course.
It will be the beginning of a politics based on freedom through opportunity.
It will be the most exciting chapter of our South African miracle.
