Ramaphosa’s jobs plan moves into next gear
The government has announced a second phase to the presidential employment stimulus programme, which over the past year has provided employment in socially useful activities for almost 400,000 people, mostly youth, as well as vouchers for subsistence farmers and livelihood support for another 150,000 in other sectors.
More than 500,000 people benefited from the programme, which had a budget of R12.8bn and massively expanded public employment as a response to the unemployment crisis.
The second phase aims to reach 570,000 people and has introduced some new programmes. It is co-ordinated by the presidency’s project management office.
The flagship has been the employment of 320,000 young people as teacher assistants in most of the 22,000 schools across the country that opted into the programme. A third of the assistants also received training from non-government organisations (NGOs) in supporting foundation-phase maths and home languages, championing reading and literacy and IT skills, and in maintenance and janitorial duties. Participants received the minimum wage for the four to five months that they were on the programme.
Minister in the presidency Mondli Gungubele said that while employment recovery must ultimately be driven by growth in the private sector, which the government hoped to assist with structural reforms, in the short term public employment could provide income for the unemployed while increasing their employability.
For 72% of participants in the school assistant project, this was their first employment opportunity.
“The presidential employment stimulus represents the most rapid expansion of public employment in SA’s history and has been implemented with unprecedented speed and scale.
“Eleven national departments were responsible for implementing programmes supported by the stimulus in phase 1, co-ordinated by the presidency,” said Gungubele.
The distinguishing features of the presidential employment stimulus have been its scale and the effort to provide people with socially useful and gainful employment to better equip them to integrate into the labour market.
Kate Philip, programme head in the presidency’s project management office, said the emphasis on finding both useful work that communities need done while providing participants with an experience similar to an actual workplace was a key objective.
Many public works pro
grammes at municipal level have been limited and involved picking up litter and illegally dumped rubbish.
“There is real energy and commitment from a range of departments across government to support the unemployment challenge. We hope to break new ground in the second phase, like we did in the first, in cracking solutions to unemployment and providing really meaningful opportunities for people in a context where the
FOR 72% OF PARTICIPANTS IN THE SCHOOL ASSISTANT PROJECT, THIS WAS THEIR FIRST EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
economy is still recovering,” Philip said.
The budget is R11bn and the biggest programme will again be the school assistant programme, which restarts in November and for which 900,000 people have already applied.
A new addition is a social employment fund, to be managed by the Industrial Development Corporation, which will enable NGOs to employ additional people in work for the “common good”. This could include making community spaces, community safety, urban food gardens and drama, art and sport. A programme specifically in the metros will enable cities to innovate in public employment, creating opportunities in similar areas.
Small-scale subsistence farmers will again be supported.