Since 1994, there has been a lot of talk about South Africa’s lost generation — the Y generation that is apathetic, apolitical, consumerist and vulnerable to a range of social ills, such as substance abuse and Aids.
More recently, we have heard talk of the so-called born-frees growing up in ignorance of the hardships that our heroes faced as they fought for the very freedoms that are taken for granted today. In fact, many complain that born-frees would not even recognise a captioned photograph of any 80s Struggle icon — even if it were on a Truworths T-shirt. Too often, I have heard the parents of these born-frees complain about the demands these children make upon them. They desire branded goods by PlayStation, JD Bug, Wii, Xbox, Nintendo, YDE, Diesel, Levi, Guess, Ed Hardy, Nokia, BlackBerry, Prada, Jimmy Choo, Nike, adidas, and Puma. Anything less will not do.
I have also heard many complaints from school teachers about pupils who are ill-disciplined and who do not respect authority. A large part of the average teaching day is dedicated to addressing those who speak out of turn.
The argument is that the “youth of today” are so concerned with branded commodities and partying that they do not care for politics or social issues. Indeed, there has been a great deal of talk about the “youth of today”, but little has been done to address these concerns. That is, until the ANCYL took it upon itself to make nationalisation of the mines a top priority.
Many critics would argue that the most pressing challenges our youth face today are poor education; violence; substance abuse; Aids; poor healthcare and living conditions — not nationalisation of the mines. Many would even say that the league’s nationalisation agenda is motivated by self-interest, given that its leaders have reportedly become crony capitalists through BEE deals and alleged tender irregularities. This is patently not the case.
The ANCYL’s vocal support for the media appeals tribunal and nationalisation as well as the ANC and SACP’s support for the Protection of Information Bill are all indicators that they are not motivated by self-interest. Instead, they are attempting to address the very concerns about our “youth of today”.
If born-frees are taking our democratic freedoms for granted, then perhaps a programme of action that will educate our youth about democracy should be implemented. Perhaps youth should be systematically stripped of the rights that they take for granted. If they were free to speak on MTN, then they certainly should not be free to speak under the new dispensation. Freedom comes at a price. What better way to do this than to make an example of unruly journalists and then slowly make your way down to the others who speak recklessly? Speech will then be a precious commodity that will be treasured like a pair of Choos.
The call for nationalisation is another brilliant strategy for achieving this educational agenda — call it experiential learning, if you will. State monopolisation of the mining industries could work as well as many of the parastatals like Eskom or Telkom. Granted, talk of nationalisation has always been met with threats of disinvestment and the crashing of the economy, but these projected hardships will teach our youth that money really is not everything. It will not come to that just yet, though.
It is more likely that nationalisation will benefit its advocates, to whom we may entrust the task of generating wealth and devising rolling plans of action for the trickle-down of that wealth to the selected masses. This is where our youth will learn the strategic value of speech that ensures their own personal success as they learn to network with the new patrons of their freedom, the new generation of the ANC — that generation that waits impatiently to take up its throne on the new incarnation of the NEC. Needless to say, the wretched Frantz Fanon will be banned from university curricula.
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