Relief as youth mentioned in Budget speech

HOW CAN it happen that two civilians are shot dead – by police – on their way home from work? Was it merely a case of mistaken identity; the women in the wrong place at the wrong time? Did the police decide to shoot first, ask questions later?

We demand answers, and the sooner, the better. Our faith in the police has already been sorely tested by the events at Marikana in 2012.

Now, with this shocking incident, we have to question the level of discipline and depth of training among the police in the province.

Provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khombinkosi Jula – in the job for barely a month – has made all the right noises, promising to be tough on crime. He will also have to be tough on those under his command. DURING the State of the Nation address, President Jacob Zuma did not elaborate much on youth investment and development.

It is no wonder that South African youth waited on Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s Budget speech for 2016 with bated breath.

Gordhan assured the youth that the government has their best interests at heart.

He said the government has a plan to give hope to the youth through training and economic opportunities, as well as to improve education.

Before the Budget speech, ACTIVATE! Change Drivers spoke to a few young people across the country to gather their expectations from the speech. ACTIVATE! Change Drivers is a network of more than 1 600 young change makers or “activators” who are finding innovative ways to transform their communities and the country as a whole.

As limited funds for higher education are currently a big issue, most students were expecting to hear the government’s plans to address insufficient higher education funding.

Student leader and activator at Fort Hare University, Isasiphinkosi Mdingi, was eager to learn how the government will execute strategies to improve distribution of funds by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

She believes the NSFAS is systematically excluding the offspring of the working class.

“I hope Gordhan will explain how the Treasury is going to raise funds that will, once and for all, turn the elusive free education dream into reality for underprivileged students,” she said.

Gordhan announced that an additional R16.3 billion has been allocated for higher education over the next three years.

An amount of R5.7bn of that is set aside to address the shortfall caused by keeping fees for 2016 academic year at 2015 levels and carrythrough costs over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period.

This is a result of the #FeesMustFall campaign, which saw thousands of students across the country uniting and demanding free education as promised by the government.

Some R2.5bn will be given to NSFAS to clear outstanding student debt, along with a further R8bn over the medium term to enable current students to complete their studies.

Funding for basic education and early childhood development was a concern to many young people as basic education plays a fundamental role in overall youth development.

Gordhan said the government’s expenditure on basic education will increase from R204bn this year to R254bn in 2018/19.

By 2018, 510 inappropriate and unsafe schools will be rebuilt. A further 1 120 schools will be supplied with water and another 916 will be supplied with electricity.

For early childhood development, an additional R813 million is proposed to be allocated to increase the number of children in Early Childhood Development centres by 104 000 over the MTEF period.

Young entrepreneurs were looking forward to how the government plans to address youth unemployment and stimulate the culture of entrepreneurship.

After all, Zuma previously mentioned that youth-related matters such as those were a priority.

Gordhan said R475m has been reprioritised to the Department of Small Business Development for assistance to small and medium enterprises and co-operatives.

While most young entrepreneurs appreciate the government’s generosity, some believe this amount cannot be the country’s single solution.

Joburg-based entrepreneur and activator Herbert Njabulo Sibanda said Gordhan’s bigger task should be giving an honest overall report on how the government is planning to remove the red tape that discourages most emerging entrepreneurs.

“Small and medium enterprise funding information, limiting business legislation, access to bigger markets and resources are some of the huge challenges for most entrepreneurs.

“I would like Gordhan to share more solutiondriven decisions on these issues,” he said.

It appears Gordhan is prepared to address these concerns.