26th ANNUAL CONFERENCE of the IFP YOUTH BRIGADE
Emandleni-Matleng: October 1 – 3, 2004
RESOLUTIONS
RESOLUTION 1: YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
Conference noting:
South Africa is a young country with half of its population under eighteen years of age;
That the ANC government has repeatedly failed the youth;
That youth empowerment and development are prerequisites of youth economic participation; and
That the Umsobomvu Youth Fund, in particular, has been tailor-made for the elite and completely excludes the poor of this country;
Resolves:
- To call upon President Thabo Mbeki to create a Ministry of Youth to co-ordinate youth development programmes in a joined-up fashion across government;
- To call upon government to dismantle the Youth Commission and to halt the establishment of the proposed National Youth Foundation by the Department of Public Works;
- To encourage the youth to become advocates of their own development and to ensure that over half of development funding reaches young people;
- To become active in the formation of NGOs and non-profit organisations (NPOs) so that we can increase our representation in national youth structures; and
- To recommend that an NPO is formed and registered in every IFP constituency
RESOLUTION 2: YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNANCE
Conference noting:
That the young people of South Africa have largely been reduced to the role of bystanders in government processes and policy formation;
That local government is the closest tier of government to the community;
That many young people view local government as a distant institution; and
That the next local government elections, scheduled to be held by early 2006, will be one of the most fiercely fought political contests since the advent of our democracy
Resolves:
- To encourage the youth to become more involved in local government;
- To ensure that local government becomes a direct and open channel of communication of the immediate needs of grassroots communities;
- To ensure that the input for policies concerning young people comes from the young people concerned;
- To encourage youth to participate in the formation of Integrated Development Plans (IDPs), the setting of performance goals and service delivery processes in municipal government;
- To establish youth desks in all IFP-controlled councils;
- To call for the establishment of Youth Affairs Bureaux at the provincial level to complement the proposed national Ministry of Youth;
- To encourage the IFPYB to participate fully in imbizos, Youth Parliaments and all other government initiatives;
- To strengthen connections between youth structures and IFP parliamentarians; and
- That the IFPYB must take a leading role in the preparations for the next local government elections
RESOLUTION 3: THE ROLE OF THE YOUTH IN DEFEATING HIV/AIDS
Conference noting:
That the HIV/Aids pandemic is affecting youth worst of all population groups; that the statistics of the infection rates, which showed a modest improvement in the late 1990s, are back in the red; that nothing less than the moral regeneration of our society will stop this disease in its tracks; and that the government’s approach to combating HIV/Aids is characterised by contradictions and the singular lack of leadership and political will
Resolves:
- That the fight against HIV/Aids remains the top priority of the IFPYB;
- To commend His Excellency the President for his speech in Parliament on August 17th 2004 articulating that the defeat of this disease can only be achieved through a united South Africa;
- To call upon government to cut through red tape and expedite the provision of testing sites, support centres and life-saving medicines;
- To revive our cultural and family values and spread the message that fidelity and abstinence are the best ways to prevent the contraction of this disease; and
- To establish a voluntary database of all our comrades in the Party who are living with HIV/Aids so that we can assist them in any way necessary
RESOLUTION 4: PARTY MOBILISATION
Conference noting:
that since the electoral setback of April 14th 2004, our Party has embraced a new mission to be a moral and constructive opposition; and that the electorate will not vote for a party that is characterised by infighting and disunity
Resolves:
- to appeal to the youth of this Party to spread the message of the IFP to every community and town where they live;
- to call upon the leadership of the IFPYB to project an image of unity and purpose to take South Africa forward;
- to ensure that the youth of our Party are fully educated and informed about the policies, ethos and the Constitution of the Party;
- and to call upon the leadership of the IFP to stamp out internal political rivalry and nepotism
RESOLUTION 5: REGENERATION AND RENEWAL
Conference noting:
that we must increase the momentum of change to entrench our mission and vision for the progress and development of our nation; that to achieve this, the youth need to work in an intergenerational partnership with their elders; and that we derive our unity and purpose from working together
Resolves:
- to maintain the unity and harmony in the IFP family across generations; to respect the provisions of the IFP Constitution that pertain to the election of leaders;
- to call upon the leadership of the IFP to establish Performance Management Systems for all Party leaders, public representatives and senior staff members; and to call upon the IFPYB leadership to establish a youth desk constituted of senior youth leaders and intellectuals to vigorously promote and protect the intellectual legacy of the IFP and its President, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi
RESOLUTION 6: STUDENT MOBILISATION
Conference noting:
that the IFP’s unity and purpose must spread across South Africa’s tertiary educational institutions;
that it is only through student mobilisation and the work of SADESMO that the IFP’s voice can be heard in every tertiary educational institution; and that it has been the long-term strategy of the IFP to identify, mobilise and train future leaders while they are still in institutions of learning, particularly tertiary institutions
Resolves:
- to call upon the IFPYB to mobilise resources that will empower and develop our youth; to urge the IFP leadership to assist the SADESMO branches in various tertiary educational institutions so that they can become the voices of the IFP;
- and to call for the reinstatement of the Mangosuthu Trust Funds to assist students with bursaries
RESOLUTION 7: POVERTY AND JOB CREATION
Conference noting:
that unemployment stubbornly exceeds 40 percent;
that young people who make up the most numerous and active section of our population, are hit the hardest;
that the gap between the rich and the poor is ever widening; the failure of the Umsobomvu Youth Fund to reduce unemployment among young people; and that the Expanded Public Works Programmes (EPWPs) are, at best, a stop-gap measure
Resolves:
- to inspire government to cultivate personal initiative and promote self-help and self-reliance through youth development programmes;
- to call upon respective government departments to explore incentive-based education and training vouchers like those in Australia and Chile, in the South African context; and to urge government to change the focus of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) from big equity deals, taken in the commanding heights of the economy, into a much deeper and more inclusive process, as hundreds of thousands of jobs will be created by small businesses
RESOLUTION 8: PRINCE MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI
Conference noting:
that the leadership Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi provides is of a kind without equal in South Africa; and that South Africa needs the principled and visionary leadership of Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi more than ever
Resolves:
- to thank Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi for the many sacrifices and difficulties he has had to endure to provide the calibre of leadership that he does;
- to express our fullest and unequivocal support to the process of rejuvenation and renewal in our Party that has been spear-headed by Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi; and to wish Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi a long and happy life
