Maimane joins Fort Hare celebrations
THE DA held its official youth day celebrations at the University of Fort Hare’s (UFH) Alice campus, where its national leader Mmusi Maimane and provincial leaders celebrated the youth of 1976.
Maimane also used the day to celebrate with the DA Student Organisation (Daso) at the university after they had managed to win the recent SRC elections.
He said Fort Hare needed to keep true to its legacy of producing leaders who could liberate people and break down systems that marginalise others in the country.
He said the fight that the youth of 2018 needed to engage in was a fight against a system and not a fight against a race.
“It is a system that keeps young black people wanting to walk around in streets and apologise for one thing or another.
“The system that just puts your foot in the door but never allows you access inside. We will always have a system that will leave young people out unless they have political connections,” said Maimane.
Maimane also made calls to the government to increase the child grant and for all South Africans who own state-supplied houses to be given title deeds.
He touched on the thorny land distribution debate, saying he rejected the idea of the state owning the land.
“I would rather see a system that will ensure that each household has a title deed,” he said.
Title deeds could be used to source funds for other needs such as education, as it was the case when his parents took him through school.
“I stand before you with two masters degrees, not because I was the brightest, but because my parents went to the bank and mortgaged their house,” said Maimane.
Maimane was joined by DA provincial leader Nqaba Bhanga, Youth Federal leader Luyolo Mphithi, youth provincial leader Mawethu Kosani, UFH Daso president Xolani Jaji and MP Yussif Cassim.
Mphithi said youth unemployment was an urgent matter that the state had to address.