SA needs policy for skills development

Policy should respond more urgently to a lack of skills, particularly among black youth, or risk having them rely more on social grants, which would further burden the system, statistician-general Pali Lehohla warns. Setting and committing to skills development targets would help, Mr Lehohla said. “It is absolutely necessary to get to grips with saying we will increase this proportion by X so that we can (reduce) the backlog, otherwise the social assistance system will be burdened and we will have serious problems,” he said. SA already has more than 16-million people who depend on social grants.