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President of the IFP, Velenkosini Hlabisa, at MUT to deliver the keynote address at the Youth Day Commemoration.
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) President Velenkosini Hlabisa has called on the young people within the party to demonstrate leadership that will put the country on the road to success. He was addressing thousands of IFP Youth Brigade members at Mangosuthu University of Technology in Umlazi, south of Durban, on Youth Day.
The event was attended by senior leaders of the party, including various structures of the Youth Brigade. Hlabisa says this generation of young people must break the barriers of poverty, inequality and unemployment.
Members were wearing IFP-branded clothing and singing party songs. Addressing young people at the event, Hlabisa says this is the time for young people to be optimistic about the future.
“This is the time of the permanent change for the success of the lives of our youth, who are the future generation of our country. The youth must demonstrate leadership now and show the way to the future. Your leadership as young people is more needed now than ever before; the struggle you must lead is that of identifying the barriers to opportunities, the barriers to hope and the barriers to success and break them once and for all.”
Siblings Siyabonga and Busisiwe Ndlovu were among the young people at the event. Among other things, they want the age limit for participation in public works programmes to be increased to above 35 due to high unemployment levels.
“We want to study but there are some barriers because of our skin colour, because of our beliefs, because of our backgrounds and because our forefathers had a belief in uniting the nation, especially the Blacks, to prosper.”
“I think they need to raise our years from 35 and above, as we want to work. There are people who are above 35 years but they haven’t achieved anything in life due to age restrictions, and they depend on grants.”
Others at the event have said young people need to take an active part in shaping their own futures while also steering clear of getting involved in crime.
The national secretary of the IFP Youth Brigade, Mlungisi Mabaso, says they need leaders with a vision and who are ready to take on the challenges facing young people today.
“We want to say to the government of today that we don’t need talking now but we need actions. This institution is one of the demonstrating that you don’t need to talk about the problem but you need to provide a permanent solution to the issues. So, it is important for us to be here because we are celebrating 50 years of existence as IFP. And MUT is among the milestones in the legacy of the founder of the organisation.”
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