What this country really needs – leadership

I am not, nor have I ever been, an exceptional person. I am your average 23-year old South African black man. But just like any other young South African that loves this beautiful country, I have an interesting story to tell.

As a published author, I draw a lot of inspiration from what I see happening around me. Inspiration in the sense of fuelling tales of fiction and the kind of riveting, earth-moving poetry I would like to write one day.

Among other things today, the country has been caught in an intense debate about a policy known as the Youth Wage Subsidy. This has been in the news for a while now, so I won’t go into what the policy entails, at least not in too much detail.

What matters is this subsidy has been proposed as the most sensible solution to the challenge of youth unemployment that SA finds itself wrestling with. Decrease unemployment. Put young people to work. Sounds fine.

The Democratic Alliance and Cosatu disagreed on this issue, concerned that the subsidy would only benefit business owners and leaders. They would be receive incentive for hiring young people to do the same amount of work as others for less money who would, in turn, eventually be kicked out of the system for other young people, the union would claim.

This disagreement came to a raging climax in mid-May when Cosatu stopped DA (who blamed Cosatu for the fact that the subsidy had not yet taken effect) in their tracks during a march to Cosatu’s headquarters to submit a memorandum. Let’s just say, Cosatu weren’t having it. Stones were thrown and people got hurt.

I witnessed this first hand. I must say it was not the greatest moment for either organisation. The next morning, DA was the national baby-face and newspaper front pages were dominated by pictures of young people in DA t-shirts bleeding.

A lot of those youngsters were not DA members but unemployed youth who were stuck in a challenging situation, desperate to get out. There are thousands more around the country.

Both Cosatu and DA members were injured, many saying that the first casualty was a Cosatu member. I also think other serious injuries plague our society. Maybe not physical ones, but injuries all the same.

Are these organisations listening, I find myself asking. It was all good and well that both organisations claimed to fight on the side of working class and people who need jobs (although Cosatu as a trade union, first and foremost, represents employed people and DA’s following is historically in mid to high class standings).

But it becomes difficult to discern whose concern for the poor and unemployed is sincere.

What this country really needs above all is leadership, where followers know where they stand. Both of these organisations claimed the other was lying to the youth for their own gain regarding this issue.

This has led me to conclude that young people can only rely on themselves to create the future that they want and deserve.

Authorities are destroying school textbooks. People are being sent away from the education that is their future because they can’t afford it. We have been counting on these people for nearly twenty years.

I think it is crucial that we learn to lead ourselves in all that we do. I think heroic youngsters like Shaka Sisulu are a good example of how to do that. Or we can continue to expect organisations to lead us. But if that is our only option they best we can hope for (and I say this very respectfully) is a brick to the face and a t-shirt.

President Nzumbi