Media Statement 16th June 2011 POPCRU salute the Youth of 19976 for their brevity POPCRU has welcomed the 35th Anniversary Celebrations on the unwavering spirit of the young lion’s struggles, for eradication of a system of separate development within the education system. POPCRU 07th National Congress took place on the eve of the celebrations of the 35th Anniversary of the African National Congress Youth League [ANCYL] which has resumed today at Gallagher Convention Centre and also urge all young people to continue to shape economic emancipation of many of our brothers and sisters, who are still in the darkness to access opportunities which have been laid through the blood-shed by Kalushi Solomon Mahlangu and many martyrs of the national democratic revolution. Dr Nelson Mandela shared with us the importance of youth actvism when he said “Our most valued treasure is our people, as especially the youth”. And he continued to say “The youth of South Africa has made a crucial contribution to the struggle for the liberation of the country” [Delivered on the 26 November 1996, Oukasie Young Christian Worker’s Meeting]. The latest unemployment statistics demonstrate in clear terms the enormity of the challenge confronting the ANC government as it seeks to fashion a new economic growth path.
Taking a cue from Statistics South Africa, QLFS, Quarter 2, 2010, it has been officially registered that “the number of unemployed people in our labour market has risen from 4, 1 million a year ago to slightly over 4, 3 million in June 2010”. This takes the official rate of unemployment in the country to 25, 3%, but the figure does not include 1, 9 million workers, who are simply too discouraged to continue looking for employment because there are either no jobs available in the area, or they are unable to find work requiring their skills. Obviously, the majority affected are the young people between the ages 28 to 35, who stand to be exploited with sometimes casual or what we call piece-jobs to restore their dignity. The problem of casualization is therefore manifold; on the one hand, our labour law has failed to provide casual workers with sufficient safeguards in the face of a rapidly changing workplace and on the other, employers have taken advantage of the weaknesses inherent in the law to casualize their workforce extensively. Addressing casualization and labour broking is a matter that is urgent for the working class. And the question is what is to be done? Part of solving the problem, is to accelerate the job creation agenda set very eloquently be the President of country, Mr. Jacob Zuma and departments must account on what do they do, to ferment real and tangible interventions to create employment for all, including all the SETA’s. We must campaign vigorously against the scourge of labour broking in all departments we are organizing i9n particular and join other COSATU Affiliates, such as the hospitality industry do uproot this modern slavery in the post-apartheid era. We reiterate our call for all POPCRU Young Workers to take a cue from these martyrs, to entrench working class consciousness and revolutionary morality. We have enhanced our capacity to debate robustly on our challenges, reflection of what more still needs to be done, and also how that will be done by all structures of the organization in particular and the working class in general. And we wish ANCYL well on their National Conference as held at Gallagher Convention Centre, Midrand. A POPCRU Young Worker is our priority! Issued by: Mampane Norman National Spokesperson Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union Tel: 0112424600/4615 Cell: 0720737959 Email: [email protected] www.popcru.org.za 01 Marie Road Auckland Park 2006 -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
