Good day Honourable Minister Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma

Currently I am conducting my internship at the National Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries as a qualified agronomist, after being sponsored by the same department in my tertiary studies.

Recently I had the pleasure of drafting a document on “Strategies To Attract Youths To Crop Farming” and I was struck by the plethora of agencies, bodies and institutions geared at assisting youths, not forgetting the various stakeholders, particularly within the plant production sub-sector. Earlier this year we heard that Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey found that while overall unemployment was at 26.7% in quarter 4 of 2017, for those aged 15 to 24 who were not in school, the rate was 51%. No country can develop without employing the most abundant of its human resource, the youth.

The multidisciplinary approach needed to attract youth in farming, for example, requires a coordinated effort as agriculture is not only about working land, there is an entire value chain to consider. This approach also requires authority and legislation to enforce it as hoping that industry stakeholders and the various pro-youth institutions will champion the needs of the South Africa youth is not guaranteed to deliver measurable results. Case in point is stated within the National Youth Policy 2020, ”The National Youth Development Agency Act (2008) is a Section 75 bill, which means that it does not affect provinces. This limits the ability of organisations and departments to effectively lobby and coordinate youth development at a provincial level. The absence of a regulatory framework for youth work has played a major role in limiting the policy’s implementation.”

Without going into the depths of agriculture, I would like to appeal to yourself in the capacity of Minister in The Presidency: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation to strongly research, along with your team, and provide a way forward for the nation’s youth in terms of mass mobilisation of industry stakeholders and youth to find solutions to this unemployment crisis.

I firmly believe the inception of a Minister solely for the youth will accelerate youth-initiatives such as the current Youth Employment Service initiative followed by the subsequent alteration of the NYDA designation from Section 75 to Section 76 as noted in the National Youth Policy 2020, “The NYDA Act is designated to Section 75, which means it is unable to execute the above-mentioned mandate at a provincial level. This leaves the youth directorates in premiers’ offices with the mandate of lobbying, advocacy, coordination, monitoring and evaluation, with minimal liaising with NYDA offices. Changing the NYDA Act’s designation to Section 76 would help resolve the fragmentation of youth development programmes and give the agency presence in provinces.”


If anything must fall, let it be mediocrity and let unity rise.

Kind regards,
Thabiso Mbatha