ANC Congress Youth League president Collen Malatjie has called for young people to get technical qualifications to respond to the needs of the economy. He was speaking last night during the youth league conference held at Johannesburg City Hall. The second leg of the conference follows one that was held last month but couldn’t conclude despite electing its new leadership. It was eight years since the youth league was none existent after it was disbanded.
GRADUATES SHOULD GO BACK TO SCHOOL
Malatji said young people who already have degrees but not finding employment should consider going back to school to acquire new qualifications. "There is no way we can resolve the issues of our economy if we are not talking about re-skilling the youth of South Africa. Young people of South Africa must have skills that respond to the needs of the country," he said. He said some qualifications that the youths have obtained are not good enough in this economy. "You must go and register at TVET Colleges and do technical subjects that will respond directly to the needs of this country," he added. "That’s a Bachelor of Arts (qualification) is not enough. We are calling all of us here to go and re-skill ourselves to respond to the economic demands of this country."
CALLS FOR MINISTER’S REMOVAL
He also called on Minister of Higher Education and Science and Technology, Blade Nzimande not to return funding to the treasury but to be used to fund the education of more students. Malatjie also threatened to get non-performing ministers removed. "We are not going to have people who are sleeping there. We must not allow a man called Ibrahim Patel (Minister of Trade and Industry) to stop the projects of re-industrialization because ANC has long resolved that we must re-industrialized. That Patel there in that Department of Trade and Industry all he does is to allow his friends to continue to still from this country but not resolve the problems of this country," he said. He called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to remove Patel and get someone from the youth league to remove him. "There can’t be a high unemployment rate in this country when there is Trade and Industry Department that is doing nothing. This department should be able to temporarily resolve the problems that are faced by the young people of South Africa.," Malatjie said.
NO TO CLOSING COAL MINES
Malatjie also said coal mines should not be closed in favour of renewals. "The base of producing energy in this country must be coal, renewal should just be an addition to the coal energy. Towns like Witbank should not be turned into ghost towns at the expense of our people," he said. "It can’t be in the middle of high unemployment and you say we must close coal mines to benefit Europeans, we will protect our coal mines, we have enough coal to last us more than 100 years. We will use that coal to create employment and generate electricity further," he added.
