Economic growth essential in reducing unemployment

In the last 30 years, government has worked around the clock to ensure that all South Africans have an equal chance to prosper.

In his State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa said government, working together with the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), have set up a number of initiatives to provide opportunities for young people including the National Youth Service and the Youth Employment Service.

“These programmes matter because work matters to people. The NYDA has played a key role in assisting a number of young people to start their own businesses. Having a job does not only provide an income, it is fundamental to people’s sense of self-worth, dignity, hope, purpose and inclusion,” the President said. 

He added that recognising the injustices of the past is not enough because they need to be corrected. 

The President said government has introduced laws and undertaken programmes to enable black South Africans and women to advance in the workplace, to become owners and managers, and to acquire land and build up assets.

“The proportion of jobs in executive management held by black people increased almost five-fold between 1996 and 2016,” he said. 

Despite the remarkable achievements of the last 30 years, the President acknowledged that many of democracy’s children still face great challenges. This is because millions of young people aged 15 to 24 years are currently not in employment, education or training.

In addition to that, he acknowledged that there are many who have a matric, a diploma or a degree who cannot find jobs, or do not have the means to start a business.

“While economic growth is essential to reduce unemployment, we cannot wait to provide the work that many of democracy’s children need. As government we have taken steps to address the youth unemployment challenge,” the President said. 

“Three years ago, building on the success of the Expanded Public Works Programme, we launched the Presidential Employment Stimulus. Through this programme, we have created more than 1.7 million work and livelihood opportunities,” he added. 

Through the stimulus, government has placed more than 1 million school assistants in 23 000 schools, providing participants with valuable work experience while improving learning outcomes.

Through the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention, government established SAYouth.mobi as a zero-rated platform for unemployed young people to access opportunities for learning and earning.

President Ramaphosa said over 4.3 million young people are now engaged on the network and so far 1.6 million have secured opportunities.