‘Give city jobs to our people…’

ANCYL wants R1bn to be allocated for training youth

ETHEKWINI municipal jobs should be reserved for people living in the city. This is according to ANC Youth League eThekwini regional chairman Thembo Ntuli who said youth league members should jealously guard city jobs and not allow them to be taken by people “outside the region”.

Ntuli said this as ANC member of the eThekwini regional executive committee Zinhle Cele told members of the ANCYL in eThekwini that mayor Zandile Gumede had succumbed to their demand to be allocated 40% of municipal positions.

Cele told members of the league who attended a dialogue on economic transformation in KwaMashu, north of Durban, at the weekend that Gumede told the eThekwini regional lekgotla last week that she had instructed municipal officials to give 40% of positions to young people.

Energy Affairs Minister Tina Joemat-Petterson also attended the dialogue on Friday night.

Ntuli said the ANCYL in eThekwini should analyse if people who are employed in the municipality were resident in the region or are from “Zululand or the lower south coast”.

“If that is the case, as young people we are all lost in the struggle,” said Ntuli.

In order to make sure that a 40% youth representation is implemented in the municipality there should be a youth development unit to be led by members of the ANCYL, “not just young people in the street, but young people who understand the challenges of young people in the country”.

Ntuli said the structure should be made up of a deputy head, three senior managers, six regional managers, 17 zonal co-ordinators and 110 branch co-ordinators.

He said the municipality would have to allocate R1 billion to the structure that would be in charge of training young people to enter into business.

“All we are calling from you when that comes is that young people must lead. They must be the ones who are employed to those posts.

“We are fighting for this structure to be yours, and if you go to collect your friends in Zululand to lead this in eThekwini while you are suffering you will be let down,” he said.

Ntuli said the structure was slowly getting approval in the municipality. He said the ANCYL would fight for the abolition of minimum experience requirements for junior posts and positions of deputy managers.

Promised

Cele had said Gumede, who is the chairperson of the ANC in eThekwini, had the support of eThekwini’s ANC REC on giving young people “their 40% as they were promised”.

“Young people should lead in the fight for economic transformation,” she said.

However, Cele did not elaborate on how that 40% would be allocated to the youth.

ANYL eThekwini spokesman Thulisa Ndlela said the league wanted the R1 billion to be allocated not to different departments of the municipality, but “to be sent where it can be monitored as a single unit”.

He said the function of the youth development unit would be explained in a document, which had not yet been released for public consumption as it was still with the youth league and the ANC.

“It would explain how the unit will achieve the mandate. The unit would be mostly to capacitate young people in the economy and to deal with issues of social ills, to partner them with the private sector not only about tenders but also about assisting a young person to play a meaningful role in such things as the ocean economy and other private sector businesses,” he said.

Gumede’s spokesman Mthunzi Gumede said he could not confirm Cele’s announcement.

“But I can tell you that it is not going to be business as usual. The mayor is committed to the issues of development of youth, woman and military veterans.

“The mayor will have a youth workshop at the end of the month to discuss business opportunities with young people,” said Mthunzi Gumede.

Joemat-Petterson said instead of the youth league calling for 40% representation in private business and government they should fight to control the renewable energy industry and send young people to study nuclear energy in countries such as China and Russia.

She said that in the next 20 years the world economy would depend on technology.

“The fourth industrial revolution is not going to be about mines or the industrialisation of mines, but it is going to be about the industrialisation of technology,” she said.

The DA’s Zwakele Mncwango said the eThekwini municipality should create an enabling environment for job opportunities rather than focusing on providing jobs for young people.

Mncwango said the municipality should prioritise locals, but it should create more opportunities for other young people, who are studying in Durban, to benefit.