Johannesburg 10 December 2024: Former President Thabo Mbeki, addressed the gathering at the 10th anniversary of the Step-Up to a Start-up National Youth Awards at the Wanderers Club in Johannesburg this morning.
The former South African President, now 82, gave a clear indication of the concerns facing South Africa, with a view of the challenges that the youth of today were going to be facing in their future.
President Mbeki noted that it was indeed an honour for him to stand before these young entrepreneurs again, a decade after the launch of the Step-Up to a Start-up programme, and called the initiative a visionary one, that has not only transformed the lives of many South Africans, young South Africans, but also illuminated one of the paths towards a brighter, more inclusive future for the country.
Step-Up to A Start-Up a Dream Chaser
“And this means that for over the past 10 years, as I’ve been told, this programme has inspired young South Africans to wake up, chase their dreams, and turn these into tangible opportunities that create value for themselves and their communities”, he remarked.
Mbeki continued saying that “When the programme was launched in 2013, the organisers dared to envision a future where entrepreneurship would be more than a career choice”, “It would become a catalyst for social and economic transformation, and over the past decade, Step Up to a Startup has delivered on that vision, empowering over 100,000 learners, 2,500 teachers, and 1,500 schools across the country.
The former President, who holds a Masters degree in economics from the University of Sussex, also pointed out that the multiple corporate sponsor’s “support is not charity, it’s an investment in the future of our nation”, “and I’d also like to say that I’m certain that the dedication of the educators and mentors has served as a backbone of the programme, nurturing the potential of our young people and guiding them towards success”.
“You embody the resilience, the creativity, the determination that South African needs to thrive in an increasingly complex world”, he said.
South Africa in Crises
President Mbeki also commented on the fact that after 30 years of democracy, South Africa was immersed in a general crisis of immense proportions. Mr Mbeki spoke of the 11 million people unemployed as a sign of this crisis, and the more than 60% of children suffering from multidimensional poverty.
“I think all of us are aware of the lawlessness, the lawlessness we see in our country” Mr Mbeki commented, “I think we also are very, very much aware of the deterioration in infrastructure in many respects, so that we have a crisis in water delivery and so on”.
President Mbeki went on to say “I’m saying …in the context of the actual reality that we face, the summation of our country into a general crisis from which the youth must play a critical role in terms of pulling our country out of that crisis”.
South Africa needs a Just Government
He referred to the recently concluded bribery scandal case, that involved US consulting company McKinsey and several senior former managers at state owned enterprises, “ it lifts the veil on how brazen state counter players were in looting the coffers of the state” he said.
President Mbeki commented that “Despite this significant milestone (of 30 years of democracy), we hope that corruption will end with the establishment of a just government system”. “South Africa’s corruption perception index has declined over the past five years, and so now we are below the global average in terms of our corruption perception” he lamented.
Truth Will Lead the Way
Mr Mbeki went on to say, “I’m saying that it’s always important that we should tell ourselves the truth about ourselves, because without that, we’ll not be able to solve the problems that confront us”.
He continued that South Africa must find solutions and that he and others have now put forward the notion that for the first time since 1994, the people of South Africa need to speak within the form of a national dialogue.
“In which South Africans, in a very, very inclusive process, talk about the South Africa they want. And the South Africa they don’t want. It’s very, very important that that national dialogue takes place Mbeki emphasised.
“And I hope, I hope that they will sort out this matter so that indeed, we launch this, so that indeed, as South Africans, including the youth, youth must play a very important role in this national dialogue” he concluded.
