Minister and NYDA Chairperson, thank you very much for inviting us to this launch. Our department has been and continues to be part of the National Pathway Management Network (NPMN) and welcome the launch of this service centre.

Structural youth unemployment is preventing millions of young men and women from gaining a foothold in the world of work and this has devastating consequences for not only youth and labour markets, but also for governments and businesses, which are seeing consumers with less spending power, workers with fewer skills and lower wages, and citizens increasingly sceptical about society and its institutions.

In an effort to ensure gains benefited by several Tintswalo’s in the labour market are not reversed, you will know that we have also amended the Employment Equity Act which the President assented to, the changes to the Act will transform the labour market and benefit the majority of our people. Furthermore, the Employment Equity changes will reduce regulatory burden to small businesses which is imperative for job creation and their survival.

NEDLAC and DEL are also in the process of developing and amending a number of our legislations, like the Labour Relations Act, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act; and the National Minimum Wage Act,

National Labour Migration Policy and Employment Services Amendment Bill to ensure that our laws respond to job creation, small businesses can thrive and be able to create employment.

President Ramaphosa in his SONA address spoke to the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention (PYEI) and the zero-rated platform for unemployed young people to access opportunities for learning and earning, SAYouth.mobi. President also spoke to the National Minimum Wage, which gets reviewed annually by the Department of Employment and Labour. The reviewing of the National Minimum Wage ensures that workers’ wages are not eroded by inflation and can respond to the standard of living. The review benefits vulnerable workers like domestic workers and farm workers among others has the potential to uplift their standard of living.

The Department of Employment and Labour has reviewed the National Minimum Wage, which will come into effect into effect on 1 March 2024. It is important to note that since the advent of the National Minimum Wage,

the research indicated that it has not led to job losses as assumed by others, therefore, there is no correlation between loss of employment and the National Minimum Wage.

Chairperson, our Government is hard at work, despite not effectively communicating what it is doing. For example, there are various programmes run by a number of departments. These include:

Chairperson, of significant importance is that more than 3.5 million work seekers were enrolled and more than 1 million were provided with employment counselling. A further 237 481 placements into permanent jobs were achieved, in line with the commitments made in the SONA to address unemployment for a further more than 2 million opportunities to be created and supported by the Department of Employment and Labour. We also assisted with the recruitment of the 10 000 youth for the DHA digitization project. The opportunities were registered on the ESSA system, the employment counsellors used psychometric assessments to comply the final short-list for Home affairs. Department of Employment and Labour was able to assist with the recruitment free of charge, for the first batch of recruits.

 

• The Department is also co-funding two projects with NYDA, for the period of three years from 2022 – 2025. These projects provide support to our youth interested in entrepreneurship. Beneficiaries for these projects are recruited from ESSA through our PES Unit. The two projects that are co-funded by DEL (LAP) and NYDA; are:

 

 

• New Venture Creation, with total budget of R234 642 604 25; each partner contributing

 

 

• National Youth Services with budget of R19 081 250.00; DEL contributing 80% and NYDA

 

 

• Sectors that are funded through New Venture Creation include Poultry Farming; Livestock Farming; Purified Water Manufacturing; Confectionery; Agriculture; Mechanical Engineering; Events Management Services and Fast Food

 

Let me emphasize that the Department of Employment and Labour systems and the related partners in the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative such as the Youth Mobi, the Higher Education KHETHA, and those of

Private Employment Agencies registered with the Department of Employment and Labour, and the Public Employment Services (PES) platform – are digital and can be accessed remotely from anywhere, in line with best international practice.

I am certain Minister Dlamini-Zuma will elaborate on the opportunities building from the Department of Agriculture Land Reform and Rural Development housed National Rural Youth Service Corps (NARYSEC), which is a youth skills development and employment programme.

Further to note, is, the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) is specifically mandated to act to mitigate unemployment above and beyond the provision of unemployment benefits – to create and preserve jobs. The CCMA-administered, UIF-funded TERS (Temporary Employer Employee Relief Scheme) – which supports distressed companies, keeping their workers in employment, whilst assisting the company to turn itself around. The programme has a 50% success rate in preventing Section 89 announced retrenchments. UIF- funded programmes, administered by Productivity SA, to strengthen productivity and competitiveness – particularly for SMMEs – to support growth and employment. Again, the objective is to mitigate against unemployment across the broader economic landscape. In extraordinary circumstances, the COVID19 TERS programme supported some 5 million laid-off workers and their families during the COVID19 pandemic.

The UIF-funded LAP (Labour Activation Programme) is exactly in this tradition – to mitigate against unemployment – and forms part of government’s

declared objective to ‘massify job creation and skills – across all levels of government. With this in mind, R10 billion has been budgeted for LAP programmes in 2024/25. There are currently over 8,000 participants on the UIF LAP Employability Training Programme, with more projects in the pipeline. [The average length of these programmes is 12 months.]

We hope that, given the challenges faced by a percentage of Tintswalo’s, the increases in budget and collective coordinated Government efforts will benefit 2 to 3 million Tintswalo’s through a multi-year program that has started.

In our ESSA system, chairperson, we are willing and ready to assist youth in their job-seeking efforts free of charge.

These initiatives benefit work seekers, particularly the youth, and they contribute to economic development and

help build social cohesion. I wish you well with this launch and all the best to the centre.

I thank you.