Charles Molele
President Cyril Ramaphosa says government is urgently prioritizing youth
unemployment, adding that efforts are underway to increase the budget
of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA).
Ramaphosa told MPs while delivering the 2019/2020 budget for the
Presidency that younger people in SA comprised more than 63% of the
ranks of the unemployed, “a devastating indictment for any country.”
He said the Presidency’s efforts will complement the work of the NYDA.
He congratulated the agency for providing start-up financing to more than
6 000 youth-led businesses, and helping create more than 18 000 new jobs.
Close to 400 000 young people, Ramaphosa told MPs, have already
received training in various spheres.
“This is sterling work and the NYDA deserves our congratulations. The
agency is also working with partners in the private sector to link young
entrepreneurs with markets through supplier development programmes,
and revitalising the National Youth Service Programme which will now be
taken on a major scale by government,” said Ramaphosa.
“The NYDA can and should do more. Hence we will, in the coming years,
bring them closer to government and increase their budget allocations.”
Ramaphosa said government needs all social partners on board to support
and complement government’s efforts to reduce youth unemployment.
“The Youth Employment Service (YES) has been hugely successful in
bridging the divide between education and entry into the formal workplace.
Other initiatives such as the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator,
and the Gauteng Provincial Government’s Tsepo 1 Million Programme,”
are also having impact, Ramaphosa said.
A coordinated plan will be rolled out soon across government in tandem with private sector partnerships, he added.
He said the plan included incorporating the provision of workplace
opportunities, the SETA’s, as well as the Jobs Fund.
In doing so, Ramaphosa said, government will be creating pathways not
just for young people to obtain gainful employment in the formal economy,
but to enable them to be self-employed as well.
“It is inclusive because it involves working with our institutions of higher
learning such as our TVETS, universities and colleges – and this by
necessity includes a prioritisation of critical skills training,”
Ramaphosa said.
“We want to see young people trained as language interpreters so that when a million Chinese tourists land on our shores, they can have guides who speak their language.”
“As the middle class buy consumer goods online, it must be our young people driving those delivery fans and motorbikes to make deliveries.”
“We must keep young people at school, and to succeed in
their studies,”Ramaphosa said.
“We would also want to know, based on the needs of the community, in which district ordinary high schools need to be converted into technical high schools, as part of giving opportunities to young people.”
