Employment & labour minister Thulas Nxesi has called for broader co-operation between provincial and national government departments to arrest the unemployment scourge in the country.
SA has a high unemployment rate, which in the first quarter rose to 32.9% from 32.7% previously. Stats SA data shows the number of unemployed South Africans rose by 179,000 to 7.9-million.
The youth unemployment rate is much worse, reaching 62.1% in the first quarter this year and 71.2% using the expanded definition, which includes people who were available for work but not looking for a job. Data shows the expanded definition of unemployment posted at 42.4% in the first quarter, down from 42.6% in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Gauteng has about 582,000 discouraged job seekers, while unemployment stands at 2.6-million. Economic development MEC Tasneem Motara said more than 300,000 job opportunities were lost in 2022 due to load-shedding.
This spurred Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi to implement a number of initiatives aimed at denting the scourge, including training and employing crime wardens colloquially called “AmaPanyaza”.
On June 16, Lesufi, who is also ANC Gauteng chair, launched the Nasi Ispani initiative to address high joblessness in the province.
On Thursday, he handed 6,000 appointment letters to the first cohort of the solar technician trainees. The programme, which forms part of the Nasi Ispani campaign, is in partnership with the manufacturing, engineering and related services sector education and training authority.
Speaking at the event held at Orlando Stadium in Soweto, Nxesi applauded the provincial government initiatives aimed at placing the unemployed in training and job opportunities.
He said if all government spheres came together such a programme would make a “big dent” in unemployment.
Opposition parties, however, have criticised the Nasi Ispani campaign, saying it was an electioneering gimmick by Lesufi ahead of the 2024 provincial and national elections, when the ANC’s support could fall below 50%. In the 2019 elections, the ANC managed to hold on to Gauteng with just 50.1%.
“Please ignore naysayers, the opposition will attack you no matter what you do. Keep your focus on young people. You’ve made a valiant start with the Nasi Ispani programme. Keep up the good work,” Nxesi told Lesufi.
“It’s clear we need to come together, pool resources together at national level ... to get more young people in jobs. The government is mindful of the unacceptably high rate of unemployment in SA and the terrible waste of talent this represents.”
Nxesi, who is one of the leaders of the SA Communist Party, said the government, as a major employer, had a duty to mitigate the high unemployment levels in one of Africa’s largest and most diversified economies.
Lesufi has said 8,000 of the funded posts in the province had attracted more than 1.2-million applications, highlighting the unemployment plight and how desperate people are for work.
Writing in Business Day on Wednesday, Lesufi said: “The Nasi Ispani programme is not just about filling vacant positions in the government but is also harnessing the available resources and working with the private sector to tackle unemployment in the province.
“This forms part of the broad provincial blueprint of Growing Gauteng Together (2030), which includes economic recovery and reconstruction, strengthening the fight against crime, corruption, vandalism and lawlessness and changing the living conditions in townships, informal settlements and hostels.”
The premier described mass unemployment as a “colossal problem that the government cannot solve alone, and we need the private sector to partner with us. The main aim is to ensure that these Gauteng residents can look after themselves, contribute to the economy and pay taxes.
“The key to finding a solution to unemployment is for all social partners to collectively participate in finding a uniquely SA developmental path that will comprehend and address the legacy of our past and ensure that more people can participate in the economy,” Lesufi wrote.
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