Education is a necessary key to unlock the development of sound leadership and economic development.
This is according to Nelson Mandela Bay ANC councillor Andile Lungisa.
He was speaking at a South African Youth Council rally on Saturday at the Motherwell Community Hall.
“We must protect and nurture our youth, they can only go forward if they are afforded the chance to go to school and institutions of higher learning for qualitative and compulsory education,” he said.
Lungisa said the fight for the expropriation of land was an even bigger fight than the one for freedom.
“Our vision is to return the economy and the land to the majority.
“They must understand that the fight for land and the economy is bigger than the fight for freedom,” he said.
The Motherwell event commemorated Youth Day, when on June 16 1976 children from Soweto protested against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in schools.
Many died from police gunshots.
Lungisa called on the crowd to support one another to define their struggle.
“We are the generation that knows that the economy and the land are not in the hands of the majority.”
He urged them to fight for development.
“It won’t come to you on a silver tray.”