The ANC Youth League has warned that youth unemployment was a ticking time bomb and it must be addressed.
The political report of the ANCYL has also identified renewal of the organisation, expropriation of land without compensation and resolving the energy crisis as some of the challenges facing the organisation.
Acting convenor of the ANCYL Fasiha Hassan tabled the report in Nasrec on Saturday.
This is the first political report in many years since the league held its own conference.
In her report, Hassan said the youth league must rise to the challenges.
But the question of lack of jobs for the youth was a national crisis.
The latest figures from Statistics South Africa showed there was a high number of unemployed young people.
“This is a national crisis. The interventions, although novel, have not been sufficient to put a significant dent into this number. This ANCYL National Congress must put forward practical and determined interventions to cut the unemployment rate amongst young people.
“The bomb is going to explode and we as the Youth League will not be spared,” said Hassan.
She said action will have to be taken to get more young people into the labour market.
Hassan said the issue of expropriation of land without compensation must be debated.
They wanted many parcels of land under the state to be released for various projects.
“The ANCYL is agitating for the expropriation of land without compensation in the metros to release land for housing construction, rents on social housing must be reduced and the sale of well-located state land parcels must be subjected to public consultative processes that the ANCYL must organise the youth to actively participate in,” she said.
She also said the issue of the energy crisis must be resolved in the country.
The country has been subjected to various stages of loadshedding in the last few months.
The youth league supports the energy mix policy that the government was pushing to deal with this crisis.
“As we address the question of energy security, we must be careful not to be pulled into a debate around renewables vs fossil fuels. This creates a false dichotomy which will not solve our energy problems as a country.
“For us to have a strong industrial economy, we need energy security. The question young people must grapple with is ‘what are our opportunity costs as a nation and how can we best utilise it to successfully decarbonise our planet?’,” said Hassan.
The league also supported the position of government on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
President Cyril Ramaphosa and his Cabinet have maintained that South Africa was non-aligned in the conflict.
A few weeks ago Ramaphosa led a delegation of African leaders to Kyiv and St Petersburg to mediate in the war between the two countries.
They will have follow up meetings soon.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
IOL Politics