New partnership needed to tackle unemployment
“This name in my view has to go through a predetermined eye of the needle before interviews. I really have a problem with advocate Kholeka Gcaleka coming for interviews and even being shortlisted,” he said.
The ANC’s Qubudile Dyantyi warned about casting aspersions on individuals before the interviews started.
“Whatever he wants to raise would better be placed and agreed with him in the presence of that candidate,” he said.
Ndlozi insisted that Gcaleka not be interviewed as various issues raised in her history in several departments at an advisory level were substantial.
“The public protector’s office must inspire ultimate independence and proper judgement, and they must pass the highest test,” he said.
“Let’s bring people who are beyond reproach and we don’t have to debate their history of working with ministers,” Ndlozi said.
ANC parliamentarians said Gcaleka met the criteria that had been set despite Corruption Watch flagging allegations against her in its submission.
Committee chairperson Bulelani Magwanishe said: “I suggest we allow the process to unfold and we put the allegations to them. If we are not convinced that they have responded properly, we are not to appoint them,” he said.
The DA’s Werner Horn said: “Whatever is a worry to us regarding fitness and properness, we will canvass with them during the interview process.”
“We would definitely remove two of them not if we had the choice. This is the nature of the beast,” he said.
When Ndlozi did not get his way, he registered the objection of his party to Gcaleka’s shortlisting. THE Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and the Department of Employment and Labour have formed a partnership to seek jobs for retrenched workers in their bid to reduce dependency on UIF funds.
Both parties also agreed that the deal would benefit other job seekers in the government’s endeavour to drastically reduce the national unemployment rate, which stands at 29% this year.
The government has also urged investment agents such as the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to continue providing funding to various employment agencies and big business in their bid to reduce unemployment.
The government admits that their new strategies were sparked by the recent unemployment rate which went up from 27% to 29% this
“I have a problem with advocate Gcaleka even being shortlisted
year. However, the government said there was hope following the World Economic Forum’s release of its Global Competitive Index Report earlier this month showing South Africa’s competitiveness had regained momentum after the recent political landscape shift following the election of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
South Africa is now ranked 60th on the Global Competitive Index – climbing seven places.
They, however, pointed out glitches in doing business and lack of skills by local people as among the factors which were likely to hit the country’s economic outlook, and would make reducing unemployment challenging. But the department is of the view that structural reforms were needed to reignite the economy and offer better opportunities to a larger share of South African citizens.
Hope for the jobless emerged when the department’s director-general Thobile Lamati revealed that there was a partnership with the UIF.
He was speaking at a workshop entitled Repositioning the Public Employment Services (PES) in the newly reconfigured Department of Employment and Labour under way in East London. The workshop ends today.
He said one such programme was the Labour Activation Programme which was an employment services scheme funded by the UIF, saying it has the potential to be what is referred to as a “game changer”.
Lamati said the programme was designed to provide the UIF beneficiaries with training that would make them ready to re-enter the labour market, and also through its enterprise development programme turn some of the beneficiaries into entrepreneurs. “So the genesis of this programme is rooted in the desire by the legislature to encourage a would-be UIF beneficiary to look beyond the ordinary benefits, which are temporary in nature.
He said the UIF was going to fund the PES to fund the job seekers. “I want you to be employment activists. In your region or area, you must know every human resources manager by name and have their cellphone numbers at your fingertips.
“You need to know your work seekers and their circumstances. The work seekers need to trust that you genuinely understand their plight and that you are working hard to find placement for them,” said the director-general. In essence, you need to give a work seeker hope.”
The PES agents will be deployed in all nine provinces.