By Charmaine Ndlela
The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), in collaboration with the National Empowerment Fund (NEF), has launched a R1 billion partnership aimed at stimulating enterprise growth, supporting business sustainability and creating 30,000 jobs.
The partnership was launched by Employment and Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth and Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Zuko Godlimpi at Langhams Fourways in Johannesburg on Friday.
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The UIF and NEF have each committed R500 million towards the initiative, which is aimed at expanding access to finance for qualifying enterprises, supporting business sustainability, advancing B-BBEE objectives and strengthening collaboration between development finance institutions.
The launch comes as government seeks to use enterprise development as part of its response to South Africa’s unemployment crisis, while also supporting small and medium-sized businesses facing financial difficulties.
Meth used the moment to call on government technocrats to ensure that budgets allocated to distressed businesses are properly spent and produce measurable results.
She said government had increased funding for programmes aimed at assisting companies in distress to R2.4 billion, but said only R265 million had been spent.
“We raised it, increased it to R2.4 billion. We only spent R265 million for the first time ever of the R2.4 billion, yet companies are closing down,” Meth said.
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The minister said the issue was not only about increasing government allocations, but ensuring that the money reached the businesses it was intended to support.
“I’m appealing to our technocrats, this time around, to bite a lower limb or bite a leg and then show that that R36.6 billion we spend, we see impact, we see outcome,” Meth said.
The R36.6 billion refers to funding allocated to the Labour Activation Programme over the medium-term expenditure period, rather than spending in a single financial year.
Meth also criticised the practice of launching programmes without ensuring that businesses receive meaningful support afterwards.
“We don’t make empty promises that we’ve taken, like people want to take photos, launch a sponsor for the sake of [launching],” she said.
“We want our businesses in the territorial areas of this country and in townships that are closed down.”
According to Meth, the UIF-NEF partnership must therefore be measured by its ability to translate financial support into real economic activity and employment.
“The real test begins now: when an enterprise secures support, wins customers, expands production and employs more South Africans. We must follow that journey and measure the result,” she said.
South Africa’s official unemployment rate stood at 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026, with 8.5 million people unemployed, according to Statistics South Africa.
Meth said the scale of unemployment required government, business, labour and development institutions to work together to create more pathways into employment.
She said MSMEs had an important role to play in job creation, but warned that funding on its own would not automatically result in employment.
“Finance alone does not guarantee a job,” she said.
Meth said funding decisions should consider an enterprise’s market, ability to deliver, growth plans and employment potential.
She also called for closer monitoring after funding was provided.
“We need to know which firms grew, which jobs were created, which jobs were preserved and whether those opportunities endured,” she said.
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The minister said businesses also required access to customers, working capital, equipment, reliable infrastructure, skills and larger markets.
“A loan alone will not turn a small enterprise into an employer,” Meth said.
She gave the example of a manufacturer that may need working capital to fulfil a large order, a township food business that needs to meet a buyer’s quality standards, or a local service provider that needs a reliable pipeline of contracts before taking on apprentices.
Meth said government institutions needed to connect finance with market access, enterprise support with skills and procurement with supplier development.
“When a capable small business can win work, fulfil it and secure the next order, it can invest with confidence and employ more people,” she said.
She also called on large companies to use their supply chains to create opportunities for emerging businesses.
“Your supply chains can become pathways into employment,” Meth told business leaders.
She urged companies to identify smaller suppliers that could grow with appropriate financial and technical support, provide workplace placements and apprenticeships, and share their skills requirements so that training programmes respond to actual industry demand.
“A purchase order can give a capable small firm the certainty to invest. A reliable payment cycle can help it keep its workers. A long-term supplier relationship can allow it to train and employ more people,” she said.
The partnership forms part of the Department of Employment and Labour’s broader Labour Activation Programme, which has been repositioned around three areas: skills shaped by real demand, workplace experience and placements, and enterprise support to enable MSMEs to create work.
Meth said the programme aims to recruit 200,000 unemployed people during the 2026/27 financial year as part of a broader commitment to reach 605,000 beneficiaries over the medium term.
She said government needed to know where employment opportunities existed before training people for them and needed to create more opportunities for young people to gain workplace experience.
“Our responsibility is to make those routes visible, credible and connected,” Meth said.
The minister also pointed to other employment initiatives, including a R350 million partnership aimed at providing 130,000 young people with learning opportunities, workplace exposure and employment interventions, as well as R95 million through the Industrial Development Corporation’s Youth Employment Innovation Projects aimed at supporting 7,000 young people into productive economic activity.
Meth said the UIF-NEF partnership strengthened the enterprise component of these interventions by providing a platform to support businesses that have the potential to employ more people.
She also announced that the Department was partnering with Statistics South Africa to examine the contribution of SMMEs, including informal enterprises, to job creation.
She said the findings should help government improve its approach to enterprise support by simplifying processes, improving access to finance and ensuring businesses have access to markets.
The launch also forms part of preparations for an upcoming jobs summit.
Meth called on CEOs and business leaders to bring concrete proposals to the summit, including projects that could expand production, suppliers that could be developed within their value chains and workplace opportunities for young people.
“I invite you to partner with the Department of Employment and Labour, the UIF and the NEF in the build-up to the Presidential Job Summit on Youth Employment,” she said.
“Bring forward projects that can expand production. Identify MSMEs in your supply chains that can grow with appropriate support. Offer workplace placements and apprenticeships with a serious prospect of progression.”
Meth said the summit should result in commitments that could be measured and tracked, with investment linked to enterprises, training linked to demand and placements linked to employers.
She also urged development finance institutions to work together where their mandates complement each other, while calling on organised labour to participate in protecting jobs and supporting skills transitions.
For emerging entrepreneurs and young people, Meth said government needed to ensure that its programmes provided tangible pathways into employment.
“We owe you institutions that respond, employers willing to recognise potential, and programmes that lead somewhere tangible,” she said.
