Issue Campaign Message Script: 20 Febbruary 2017 – 24 March 2017

The Democratic Alliance (DA’s) priority is to build a better tomorrow for South Africa’s youth.

Currently, a generation of young, mainly black South Africans are not in employment,

education or training, and have been left behind by an ANC government that refuses to rescue

them.

Rescuing this lost generation is our greatest challenge. And it is the DA’s biggest mission.

These young people, who make up almost two thirds of the 9 million South Africans without

work, deserve a future of freedom, fairness and opportunity. But this “lost generation” – our

sons, daughters, brothers and sisters - live a life of hopelessness, despair and desperation.

Roughly half of young South Africans who begin Grade One drop out of school before they

reach matric, and those who do not drop out get substandard school qualifications because

the quality of schools they attend is so poor. Those who achieve university standard matric

passes cannot finish university and college due to funding gaps and poor higher education

policy. And those who graduate with degrees and diplomas cannot find jobs because the

economy is not growing at a rate quick enough to absorb them into the labour market.

We will never give up on the lost generation. They are our brothers, our sisters, our children,

our grandchildren. We will not gamble with our future. Over the next year we will focus our

attention on these young people. We will highlight their challenges. We will stand in solidarity

with their plight. We will talk to them, and we will listen.

This situation cannot continue. And it doesn’t have to. Because the DA has a rescue mission for

this lost generation. Ten years from now, this generation will need to start filling leadership

roles in government, in business, in civil society – in a South Africa led by the DA. They will

need to spearhead our advances in technology, medicine, engineering, law. They will need to

drive entrepreneurship which, in turn, will drive employment. They will spearhead South Africa’s path to becoming a safe, prosperous nation that will be a beacon of hope for the

developing world.

The DA’s rescue mission focuses on skills for jobs and economic growth that creates jobs.

Skills for Jobs

 The DA will create diverse education, training and internship options. We will

introduce an expanded National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). The poorest

students will be comprehensively supported. The missing middle, who cannot secure

funding or bank loans, will receive support proportional to their family income.

 The DA will bridge the study-work divide. To equip graduates with the necessary

skills, we will invest heavily in a government internship programme across all

departments, similar to our highly successful model in the Western Cape Provincial

Government. We will establish private sector apprenticeship programme. We will

introduce Opportunity Vouchers for young people to be used to subsidise university or

TVET college fees, provide seed capital for a micro-enterprise, or act as a state

guarantee on a bank loan to establish a micro-enterprise. We will implement

comprehensive Youth Wage Subsidy, which will incentivise the hiring of young, low-

skill jobseekers. All this will run in conjunction with the rapid up-scaling of the existing

Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) to offer temporary employment and skills

training to a greater number of young people;

 The DA will provide better education. We will bring back teacher training colleges to

ensure teaching excellence and we will hold principals and teachers accountable

through regular performance testing. We will hold schools accountable for high drop-

out rates.

 The DA will offer a year of free technical training to all Matrics.

Rapid Growth that creates jobs

 The DA will accelerate investment. We will run a clean, transparent government,

guarantee consistent service delivery, invest in the right infrastructure and keep

communities safe and clean. As a result, businesses will want to invest.

 The DA will boost support for SMMEs: Small, medium and micro-sized enterprises

(SMMEs) will be the primary job creators. And we must ensure financing with effective

non-financial support. We will set up Opportunity Centres, to offer advice, business

registration, training and other services. We must turn South Africa into a nation of

entrepeneurs.

 The DA will start a jobs and justice fund: to give entrepeneurs access to the capital

they need to start and grow businesses and create jobs.

 The DA will invest in infrastructure for inclusive economic growth.



We must free young South Africans to take their destiny into their own hands. To be owners of

wealth and capital, to climb the ladder of opportunity, and to succeed. Our Rescue Mission will

build a better future for all.