Jobs high on Cyril’s agenda

President’s focus on unemployed, young at Youth Day celebration

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has committed government to supporting private-sector initiatives in creating one million work experiences for young people over the next three years. He also made a commitment to eradicate pit latrines and to ensure no child will ever die again in such toilets at their schools or in their communities.

Ramaphosa was speaking at the 42nd anniversary of the 1976 Soweto students uprising at Orlando Stadium yesterday. His address was targeted at young and unemployed people, particularly graduates. Among the few young people who attended were some who had received funding from the National Youth Development Agency to set up 2 500 start-up companies.

The rest were youth of school-going age, in their uniforms,with their parents.

Despite the poor attendance, Ramaphosa outlined the government’s immediate intention to deal with the plight of unemployed youth in the country.

He said young people have been at the centre of every “decisive historical moment in the struggle against colonialism and apartheid”.

“Youth continue to bear the brunt of unemployment, poverty and inequality. They remain the hardest hit by disease, violent crime, drug abuse and under-development.”

Making a commitment to change their situation of joblessness for the better, Ramaphosa said: “We understand the frustration of young people who cannot find jobs, who do not have the skills and experience employers are looking for, and are unable to find the support they need to start their own business”.

He said the responsibility of the government, business, labour and civil society was to develop pathways for young people into work. “It is this task to which we should be directing our efforts and energies.”

He said those who benefited from agency funding, created more than 10 000 jobs, adding to more than 25 000 young people gaining access to job opportunities over the past three financial years.

“Government has done much through its public employment programmes and investment in infrastructure to give priority to young people and women,” he said.

Ramaphosa said government had already introduced employment tax incentives to encourage companies to employ young people.

He also said a job summit was under way which would be attended by major employers in the country including the government, labour and civil society, which he said, would need to take “extraordinary measures to create jobs on a scale that we have never before seen in this country”.

“It will need to forge a new social compact which mobilises all sections of society behind the task of growth and job creation.

“The youth employment service, which is an initiative led by the private sector and supported by government and labour, was launched earlier this year to bridge the gap between school and work.

“With a number of large companies already involved, it aims to create a million work experience opportunities for young people over the next three years.”

He suggested investigating wage subsidies for small companies. Ramaphosa also appealed to big businesses to employ more young people in numbers, saying that in doing so they would be guaranteed returns.

“It does not place a great burden on individual companies but, if taken up on a large scale, such a move could significantly reduce youth unemployment while bringing much-needed skills into the economy.

“Employers need to understand that for our country to succeed, for their business to thrive, they must take responsibility for providing young people with the work experience they need.

“They must realise that the only way to get experience is to get work. If we are to succeed in creating more jobs for young people, our economy needs to grow much faster – and for that it needs investment.”

Government has embarked on a massive drive to attract R100 billion in US currency into the local economy over the next five years.