Reviewed National Youth Policy: DPME; Success & Challenges of Solomon Mahlangu Scholarship programme & Second Chance Matric Re-Write Program: NYDA briefings

Meeting report

Chairperson’s opening remarks

The Chairperson highlighted the core importance of education as the driving force of development and eradication of inequalities on a national scale. She suggested that the officials of government entities at the meeting should record the Members’ questions and inputs in writing in order to provide concrete answers within the following weeks. This method would provide a stronger incentive for accountability, as the process of direct and oral answers often lacked adequate details.

Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) on reviewed National Youth Policy

Ms Gasa Nolwazi, Acting Director General (ADG): Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), briefly addressed the National Youth Policy (NYP) formulation road map, which had started with the gathering of initial inputs in September 2014 and had culminated in the Cabinet's approval in May 2015.

Ms Nolwazi said that youth comments had confirmed research undertaken by the Department, with a common emphasis placed upon the issues of access to jobs, the enablement of entrepreneurship, the quality of education and enhanced access to skills and higher education, and the importance of offering second chances to all without exception, even for previously incarcerated youth. She emphasised the importance of dealing with the drug scourge, of enhancing healthcare and promoting healthy life styles, and to foster tolerance for all South Africans along the values of respect deeply rooted in civic education. These key benchmarks, confirmed by youths’ comments, were firmly anchored in the NYP2020’s existing government policies, while they were also part of the transformation machinery of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA).

The NYP objectives had thus been drafted in correlation with these findings, and included the integration of youth development into the mainstream of government policies, programmes and the national budget, as well as the strengthening of the capacity of key youth development institutions, through an ensured integration and coordination in the delivery of youth services. Additional objectives had been underscored, such as the enhancement of a culture of patriotic citizenship among young people, as part of a broader trend of personal development towards responsible adulthood. This spirit of patriotism ought to be encouraged by a visible and active participation in different youth initiatives and nation-building activities.

The NYP was in perfect accordance with the Constitution of South Africa, the National Development Plan (NDP) and the NYDA Act, and was also in compliance with various international frameworks, such as the African Youth Charter.

Ms Nolwazi underscored the values and principles guiding the Department's policy implementation as the notions of participation and transformation, access and empowerment, as well as the concept of worth as social beings. The policy moreover had been crafted as a response to the wide range of issues affecting the youth. These included unemployment, high drop-out rates, poor reproductive health and substance abuse, lack of social cohesion and weak youth development machinery. As a matter of addressing directly these issues at the core, she emphasised the nature of the NYP's initiatives as targeting primarily economic transformation, skills development, health care and drug strategies, social cohesion and the optimisation of the youth machinery.

She briefly provided Members with a more in-depth appraisal of some of core policies of the NYP, starting with economic transformation and participation, including full implementation of the youth accord. She emphasised in this regard the importance of coordination with industrial policy interventions in order to improve the process of labour absorption in the economy while stimulating the phenomenon of hiring first-time job seekers. Work exposure measures were highlighted as major subsets to the policy, providing opportunities to gain 'on-the-job' experience, including internships. The economic policy of the NYP finally underscored the need to prioritise Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), land reform and the promotion of equity participation in the mining industry.

The policy's approach to skills development and second chances included the expansion of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges and other key youth development institutions, the enhancement of funding assistance to students with poor familial backgrounds, the provision of second chances to out of school youth to complete their education through vocational training, and the formalisation of a graduate recruitment scheme for the public service. An additional feature of the policy was the development of a tax incentive to employers, reducing the initial costs of hiring young labour-market entrants, and a subsidy to the placement sector. The latter ought to occur in correlation with the expansion of the role of the state-owned enterprises in training artisans and technical professionals. The final components of the policy were the roles of the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) in implementing the White Paper on Special Needs Education, and constant emphasis on reducing the number of youths at risk of a premature exit from the education system.

Ms Nolwazi then focused on the aspect of the policy linked to health, including reproductive health care. A relative dissonance had been observed among young people regarding health-seeking behaviours. The policy gave priority to enabling access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) services and information, underlining individuals' ability to exercise personal choice in decisions. Emphasis had furthermore been placed upon universal access to quality health care through the government's establishment of a publicly funded and publicly administered National Health Insurance scheme. She reminded Members of the importance of the latter, driven by the logic of need rather than of economic capacity. The subset health policy of the NYP was described as inculcating a core value system, void of gender stereotyping and prejudices, as well as fostering a sense of self and mutual respect, along with a deeper understanding of others' and their own sexuality.

She commented that the presentation had purposely omitted to refer to the NDP on HIV/AIDS and TB, as the strategy plan relied on a long term vision of a future HIV-free generation. She nonetheless claimed that the Department had an active stance on the matter, with some of its officials currently attending a HIV-related meeting in Durban, characterised by a specific focus on prevention and the provision of treatment for young people, while promoting gender equality.

Another major aspect of the NYP health policy was the emphasis placed upon the drug strategy, seeking to reduce the availability of dependence-forming substances, to strengthen communities in dealing with matter of substance abuse, to enforce the laws facilitating the effective governance of the supply chain with regard to alcohol and other drugs, and finally to provide recreational facilities and diversion programmes, as a matter of prevention for vulnerable populations. The latter aspect of the strategy bore significantly positive externalities, for the creation of diversion programme was necessarily associated with the creation of job opportunities.

Ms Nolwazi expressed, in a broader perspective, the importance of optimising the youth machinery at every level, relying on the NYDA -- yet not exclusively, for it could not do everything for youth development. Therefore, every sphere of the government ought to support youth development with a cross-departmental approach. The business sector should be at the forefront of these development programmes, while civil society actors, including faith-based organisations were also meant to play a major role in driving youth programmes within the ambit of the NYP2020. Youth had always been at the forefront of recent service delivery protests across the country, emphasising the importance of optimising the youth machinery.

Ms Nolwazi reassured Committee Members that the NYP2020 would form the basis for the development of an integrated youth development strategy, while the NYDA had already begun this developmental process. She asserted that the Presidential Youth Working Group (PYWG) technical committee had recently engaged with the task of unpacking the NYP2020, to facilitate its implementation.

Discussion

Mr J McGluwa (DA) referred to the matter of drug abuse, raised in the NYP policy's subset on health. Certain members of his family, as well as some of his friends, had had to face this dramatic issue. He described it as an endless struggle with a spiral down effect, which ought to be more significantly addressed by the government. He had taken note of the strategy promoted by the NYP. He described the current state of rehabilitation centres as sombre and sorrowful environments, where drugs were often smuggled in, challenging the very efficiency of these structures and the governmental action, in a broader perspective. He asserted that no changes had been witnessed at the community level, which was still being riddled with crime resulting primarily from drug-related motives. He argued that individuals who had been personally involved in the drug struggle were the most appropriate actors to address the issue and to engage in prevention campaigns. With regard to the NYP presentation, he wanted more information on the people involved in the drug strategies, as well as additional details on the exact number of programmes and their precise content.

Dr M Cardo (DA) said he appreciated the NYP presentation, particularly its general alignment with the NDP. However, he was concerned about the policy's lack of coordination with the private sector. He described the strategy adopted as interventionist, and characterised by its exclusive emphasis on the government as the job creator. He emphasised the need to further develop a youth wage subsidy, as well as to reshape the policy in a more private sector-friendly fashion. He enquired about the current situation on wage subsidies, and when the state programme would actually be implemented. He then addressed what had been referred to during the presentation as youth brigades, asking for details about the nature of their operation as well as their exact goal within the broader scheme of youth development services. He described the presidential working group on youth as an additional entity to the many existing youth development agencies, and questioned the extent to which all these various groups differed, drawing attention to the importance of minimising the waste of effort. He concluded by highlighting the presentation's lack of time frames, ultimately hindering its effectiveness.

Ms V Mente-Nqweniso (EFF) referred to the presentation's “collection of youth ideas,” and asked about the process of collecting these 'youth comments.' She wanted greater details from the Department’s officials on exactly which youths had been consulted. She said that NYDA programmes were poorly promoted in the townships, where the majority of the youths were not aware of their existence. She agree with Dr Cardo's criticism about the absence of concrete time frames, which would necessarily hamper the policy's evaluation and implementation accuracy. Another shortcoming was the absence of details on key individuals involved in the implementation of the NYP strategies. She enquired about the nature of the findings on high youth drop-out rates, including how the investigation had been undertaken and where the youths involved in this example had been located. She emphasised the unbalanced nature of the healthcare system at the national level, referring to the gap between rural and urban areas. She asked Department officials what relationship they were seeking to develop and to what extent the youth policies would contribute to the attempt to bridge these gaps.

Mr S Motau (DA) offered Members a personal testimony related to the issues at stake. He described how he had been employed in the private sector in 1990, and had already identified the lack of job opportunities as South Africa's main issue. A conference had taken place in Kimberley at the time and the DPME's diagnosis on the dramatic consequences of youth poor access to employment was exactly the same as his evaluation more than two decades ago. Over this time period, the situation on drugs in the country had worsened.

Mr A van der Westhuizen (DA) similarly argued that the challenges faced by South Africa 25 years ago were still the same today. What new solutions would the Department bring forward? Although new mechanisms had been developed in the past years, including by the NYP, outcomes remained particularly weak, and it provided one with only small insight into what had concretely changed. He said that a wide range of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including faith-based organisations, were already active with regard to youth development and could pride themselves on having a significantly positive influence on the lives of many communities. In the light of this success by civil society, why had the Department not acknowledged these achievements and tried to incorporate them into the policy making process? He exemplified these initiatives with the many cases of music-linked organisations in the Western Cape which provided local youths with alternative opportunities through the medium of music as a socio-educational tool for empowerment. With regard to the issue of labour market entry, he described how the government was constantly facing opposition from labour unions. He thus expressed concern over the NYP's incentivisation for youth entry into the labour market, which could potentially not be accepted by the different labour unions.

Mr M Ntombela (ANC) raised certain criticisms, notably with regard to the presentation's statement that leadership began at home. He described this perspective as slightly exaggerated, as the apartheid legacy had left many families broken down. He supported to Mr van der Westhuizen's comments, confirming that social structures and the NGOs played a major role in the transmission of discipline and survival skills to the youth. He urged the NYP to adopt a more inclusive stance towards these actors.

Ms R Lesoma (ANC) expressed her enjoyment of the Department's presentation, and said she hoped the policy would acknowledge and rely on the development which had occurred during the past 20 years, as these achievements should be the basis of new partnerships and the current development of policies. With regard to the various workshops held by the Department, she stressed that the DPME should invite Members of the Committee, and particularly the Chairperson, and enable them to get a general impression of the different processes at stake. She asserted that additional disadvantages existed beyond the health-related threats, and notably HIV/AIDS and drug issues. She emphasised the importance of promoting strong familial structures, reminding one that the government ought to develop its policies by placing community and solidarity-linked structures at the core, rather than emphasising growing individualism. She concluded by enquiring about the status of young people with disabilities, as the topic had receive no mention during the presentation.

The Chairperson described herself as relatively demoralised following Mr Motau's statement, which had highlighted how little change had taken place in South Africa, with the government dealing today with the exactly same problems as those of nearly three decades ago. She and Mr Motau had entered office exactly one year and one day ago, and she openly asked what had been achieved by the Committee over this period of time. The current policy-making process could not start from scratch, and ought to be drafted along the efforts laid out during the past decades.

Ms Nolwazi intervened by ensuring Members of the Committee that the policy had constantly been informed by achievements of the past. She exemplified this with the presidential initiative of publishing last year a 20-year review of the country's past achievements. A perpetual reference to the past had been the basis of the crafting of the present NYP. She indicated that civil society actors had been given an increasingly predominant role and would be placed at the core of governmental cooperation.

The Chairperson reminded Ms Nolwazi that as specified earlier in the meeting, the Department should submit written answers to the various enquiries of the Members. The Department would be given a period of one to two months to craft detailed answers to provide Members with insightful understanding of the NYP.

National Youth Development Agency on Solomon Mahlangu Scholarship Programme & Second Chance Matric Re-Write Programme

Ms Nthuseng Mphahlele, Executive Manager: National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), said her presentation would be divided into two parts, the first one addressing the Solomon Mahlangu Scholarship (SMS) and the second one dealing with the Second Chance Matriculation Re-Write Programme (SCMRP).

Solomon Mahlangu Scholarship (SMS)

The SMS had recently refocused its organisational mandate towards youth development, with the underlying priority of enabling a greater access to quality higher education. Giving a brief appraisal of Solomon Mahlangu's history and legacy, she said that he had been executed in 1979 by the apartheid government, while he stood for equal education. She quoted his famous statement: “My blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom. Tell my people that I love them. They must continue the fight". She described him as a hero, whose legacy should by honoured by South Africa along with the furthering of education's struggle.

The SMS was a key initiative of the NYDA that relied on the funding launched by President Zuma in March 2014. The scholarship fund provided a comprehensive financial aid and survival support to students who were studying locally and abroad, with involved cooperation with the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO). The SMS requirement for enrolment was a minimum 70% average in the National Senior Certificate as an academic benchmark, while there were additional criteria, such as the candidates had to originate from rural areas and disadvantaged backgrounds.

Referring to the national state of education, she said that the headcount of enrolments at the country's universities had approximately doubled to almost one million students since 1994. However, different races were still accessing higher education at significantly different rates. It was this issue of the significant gap between the different races' access to higher education that ought to be addressed by the SMS, for only 14% of African and coloured youth students were currently enrolled in higher education institutions, as opposed to 57% and 58% for white and Indian youths respectively.

Ms Mphahlele said there was a structural mismatch in the labour market, with the percentage contribution of youth to overall unemployment being of about 72%. This discrepancy could be partially explained by poor skills and the structure of the education system, which did not necessarily addresses the economy’s extensive requirement for a skilled labour force. An undeniable relationship existed between employment and education, justifying the SMS's importance. She highlighted the Scholarship's prioritisation of certain sectors within the South African economic structure, with preferences for funding in the marine industries, the green economy, the aerospace and nuclear sectors, the agricultural value chain and the Information and Communication and Technology (ICT) industries. Specific delivery partners were defined along this sectoral prioritisation, and included 23 Higher Education and Training institutions, 20 Further Education and Training (FET) colleges and several international scholarships established with the DIRCO's cooperation.

Ms Mphahlele described certain core criteria for the selection of young people benefiting from the scholarship. She said an average of 65% was necessary in required subjects, as a benchmark to meet scholastic criteria. In terms of financial criteria, the income threshold was R15 000 a month, above which a family could not benefit from the bursary. Additional requirements for selection included rural area origins, an enrolment in the critical scarce skills prioritised by the economy, the non-cumulation of any other financial assistance and the demonstration of special talents and services to the community.

The SMS also prided itself with the involvement of a career counsellor as well as a youth psychologist who could be consulted during the awarding of the scholarship, to provide additional support to disadvantaged youths. The number of youths who had benefited from the scholarship was 124, 116, 236 and 300 for each of the four years since 2011.

Second Chance Matric Re-Write Programme

Ms Mphahlele described the National Senior Certificate (NCS) Second Chance Matric Re-write Programme (SCMRP). It had been initiated by the NYDA in 2010, and sought to address the high level of youths failing to achieve the NCS or Matric by creating an enabling environment that gave young people a second chance to repeat and re-write a maximum of three failed subjects. There were certain priority subjects -- accountancy, mathematics, physical sciences and English. This academic selection was justified by the impact of these subjects on the country's developmental objectives, as well as by their accordance with the NDP 2030 and Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF). The programme was aligned to the Constitution and particularly Act No. 104 of 1996, present in the Bill of Rights, which stipulated that every citizen had a right to a basic education, as well as to higher education. She said the NCS or Matriculation certificate was important, as it was a real passport to the labour-market.

She claimed that today there were 3.2 million young people who were not in education, employment or training across South Africa, particularly in Gauteng, Kwazulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and the Western Cape. These provinces also recorded the highest number of young people registering to rewrite matric.

With regard to the actual programme, Ms Mphahlele described a process of analysis and recruitment based on key indicators, such as pass rates and rurality, followed by the allocation of learners to centres in proximity to their communities, as well the provision of resources to ensure learning and its actual facilitation and assessment. Learners were thus prepared for the second chance of their examination, which was itself assessed and consolidated if necessary by those involved in the programme. The Second Chance Programme was thus appraised as a comprehensive model, contributing to greater equality in education. In terms of the initiative's delivery partners, the DBE, the NYDA, the Education and Training Development Programmes (ETDP) and the provincial governments were the key associated institutions. Dabane Samkele was an example of the 2012 programme's beneficiaries -- a young man who had achieved success in his NCS thanks to the NYDA initiative.

Discussion

Ms Mente-Nqweniso expressed her concern over the emphasis placed by the programme on certain academic subjects over others. She asked what would happen to a student who had failed and needed support to rewrite a subject that was not listed as a priority by the NYDA. With regard to the R15 000 family income, she expressed her strong conviction that the benchmark was dangerously too low. She warned the Department's officials against a situation in which a family would need to take its income away in order to enrol a young person and benefit from the scholarship. She asked what criteria had informed this benchmarking. She also pointed out the lack of rural area schools in the programme, enquiring about the extent to which transformation was actually occurring and the existence of cross-province transfers.

Ms Mente-Nqweniso said that the 65% average mark requirement was a positive aspect of the programme, but she asked whether the NYDA had engaged in significant interaction with the DHET in order to gain greater insight into the constant decrease in academic standards, including the NCS pass rate. The gap existing between a decreasing national performance in high schools and a stable requirement of 65% could ultimately result in a shortage of students meeting the criteria and being able to apply for the bursary. With regard to the programme's claim of funding institutions directly, she asked why there had been numerous reports of students benefiting from the bursary, and manipulating large amounts of cash. This phenomenon was counter productive and risky for the youth benefiting from the bursary, and she wanted to know how such situations could occur.

Mr McGluwa expressed his concerns over the highly diverse NSC pass rates and the significant disparities in education. He asked why only three subjects had been selected as benefiting from potential support. A student might need academic help in more than three subjects and beyond the academic set described by the NYDA programme. He emphasised the importance of the NCS, claiming that the matriculation certificate was vital for any profession in the labour market. He stressed that every South African citizen deserved a second chance.

Mr Van der Westhuizen asserted that bursaries were usually implemented for the full length of one's studies, while the amounts involved should logically increase over time as new members benefited from the bursary, and others carried on with their academic careers through the same scholarship. In the light of this reasoning, he enquired about the irregularities of the figures of the Mahlangu Scholarship beneficiaries, for they did not always increase over the year, and had even decreased between the years 2011/12 and 2012/13. He said that this decline in the number of beneficiaries could only be explained by either a great proportion of them failing, or by the NYDA abandoning certain students in the middle of their studies. He asked for clarity on the matter.

In a similar fashion, he enquired about the flexibility of the bursary and whether it bore the potential to support students who would require an additional year in order to complete their degrees. He raised similar questions with regard to the actual financial content of the scholarship, arguing that it could not be applied in a linear manner, for different courses were associated with different costs, while the cost and quality of accommodation and student life also differed extensively according to their context. He shared Ms Mente-Nqweniso's concern over the availability of cash for students, indicating that students generally lacked enough experience to spend such money wisely, so the bursary should fund the institutions directly in order to prevent beneficiaries from handling any money themselves.

Mr Motau told Members and Department officials that he was nearby when Solomon Mahlangu was executed in 1979. Along with colleagues at the time, he had tried to find out where the struggle hero would be buried, and had been given incorrect information. After the initial confusion, he and his colleagues had eventually found the place of burial, which was located very close to his home at the time. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela had been present at the time of the funeral, and had delivered a moving speech to commemorate the recently murdered hero.

Mr Ntombela asked questions about the Second Chance programme, including whether the figures displayed by the NYDA were so small because of funding weaknesses, or if there were additional factors which had contributed to such a small number of beneficiaries. He had already run similar programmes in his constituency, providing three schools with support towards the NCS examinations. He asked to what extent this initiative was actually benefiting rural areas. In many communities, some youths had already gained basic skills, and he referred to electricians as an example. He asked whether the NYDA could incorporate such young people.

Dr Cardo asked whether the bursary programme had failed to enrol a sufficient number of students as beneficiaries of the Solomon Mathlangu scholarship. What was the exact target of the initiative, and what percentage of this stated objective had been achieved? He urged the NYDA to provide greater details about the programme’s cooperation with other governmental initiatives.

Ms Lesoma praised her colleague's last question for its relevance to the present discussion. She moreover reminded Members of the importance of basic education, and of the role players. She asked what the intervention strategy was, as well as how and when the educators intervened to provide the students with support. She repeated her suggestion to the NYDA of inviting Committee Members to attend some of these programmes. The Committee would support the Department's initiative to ensure an increasing focus on rural areas, and the constant promotion of the principles of fairness and equality.

Closing comments

The Chairperson said that the Committee was not expecting immediate answers from the Department's officials. She renewed her instructions of providing the Committee with formal written answers to their questions within a given period. She reminded them of the current urgency for certain aspects of governmental action, and of the importance of providing sustainable solutions. She emphasised the importance of developing time frames to provide Members with greater insights into the actual operation of the NYDA programmes. She asserted that most people had never heard of these programmes, particularly in the rural regions. She had personally never encountered the existence of these international scholarships, and therefore urged the Agency's delegation to provide greater details on its communication strategy and on the approach it was following to effectively address the youth. The extensive reliance on local newspapers by the Agency to promote its actions was too limited, and ought to be complemented by new methods.

The Chairperson invited the Department's officials to return before the Committee in two months’ time, with concrete answers to the questions that had arisen during the discussion.

Ms Mente-Nqweniso raised the importance of significantly engaging with Basic Education. The pass marks were currently too low and the Department ought to increase its standards. The benchmark of R15 000 income per family, as the maximum allowed to benefit from the scholarship, was limiting and hindering, and she suggested an increase to at least R20 000 per month. She criticised the narrow selection of programmes that received academic support in terms of the NCS, and suggested the NYDA should broaden this selection to all academic disciplines in order to enhance its relevance to youth support.

Ms Mphahlele thanked Members for their respective inputs and offered to provide a hint of the responses to some of the concerns which would ultimately be completed by a written submission, as previously agreed.

She said that some students did not provide enough credible information, while the Agency significantly lacked the capacity to investigate the personal and financial situation of some of the beneficiaries. She also described instances in which a student would accumulate funding from more than one bursary, to the detriment of the respective scholarships' regulations.

While this could potentially explain why certain students ended up handling cash, this situation could also result from the fact that many tertiary institutions lacked the required mechanisms for the Department to fund the institution directly. She gave the example of certain institutions of higher education that did not have restaurants or canteens that accepted vouchers, forrcing the scholarship fund to provide the students with cash in order to purchase meals.

The Chairperson thanked Ms Mphahlele for this clarification, while reminding her of the Committee's high expectations on the written submissions. Cases of double funding were a major issue which should be targeted, and the Agency should use the existing software and available ICT to address this matter. She also reminded the Department’s officials that it was their duty to filter incorrect information.

The Chairperson indicated that the next funding would take place in eight months’ time, and the Committee Members would visit the NYDA's office during this period. It was important to ensure accountability, and she suggested that students benefiting from the scholarship should sign a declaration of good will, stipulating the criteria of their funding by the governmental agency.

She said that the DPME was the most criticised Department of the entire Parliament, and expressed her lack of confidence and relative doubt with regards to its effectiveness to achieve governmental objectives. Neither the Democratic Alliance (DA), nor the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) had voted in favour of this Department's composition. She thus urged the DPME’s officials to increase their efforts, as her support so far had not been justified. She was aware that the Department was involved in many projects. She also suggested a wiser and more effective use of the communication budget. She concluded by saying that these criticisms were intended to be constructive in order to contribute directly to enhancing the general good of the nation.

The meeting was adjourned.