Programme Director, Ms Fifi Peters
Chief Communications-Harambee Youth employment Accelerator: Ms Zengiswe Msimang
Director of the Presidential Youth employment interventions: Ms Tshego Walker
Regional Director: Middle East and Africa, Uber Technologies: Frans Hiemstra
Acting Director General: Ms Jacky Molisane
Senior officials Management of the Department of Employment and Labour,
Our partners from Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator and Uber,
Captains of industry, Social partners,
Members of the media, and
Most importantly, the young people of South Africa Good morning,
It is a privilege to join you as we launch a partnership that is practical, scalable, and urgent in its purpose, unlocking pathways to work and income for young people now.
South Africa's challenge is stark and personal.
Too many young people are ready to contribute but face barriers at every step from the cost of getting to an interview, to a lack of work experience, to limited visibility of real earning opportunities.
This is why the 7th Administration is doubling down on collaborative solutions that turn intent into impact. Through the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention (PYEI), government is pursuing a demand-led, sector- based approach to reduce unemployment by 10–20% by 2030, an ambition that translates to 800,000 to 2 million additional livelihoods.
We know that traditional pathways alone will not carry us to that future. The platform economy, digital marketplaces that connect services to demand has already enabled 3.9 million South Africans to earn through one or more of 92 platforms.
By 2035, the broader digital economy could add an estimated R95 billion to GDP. This is not theoretical; it is an engine of inclusion when we design it right. Today's partnership is a blueprint for designing it right.
Uber's technology has enabled income for more than 100,000 people since its 2013 launch. Harambee, as a social enterprise, has supported 4.1 million youth, enabled 1.3 million jobs, and catalysed over R30 billion in youth earnings.
Together, Uber and Harambee are committing to break two stubborn barriers at once, the cost of getting to interviews and entry into the digital economy. Over the next five years, the partnership will support 10,000 young people to access earning opportunities on the Uber platform channelled via SAYouth.mobi and, with the broader private sector, enable up to 100,000 rides to job interviews so that opportunity is never missed for lack of transport.
Allow me to acknowledge the strategic leadership of the Presidency and our Department in placing youth employment at the centre of national renewal. Our task is to build an ecosystem where government policy, private- sector innovation, and social partners reinforce each other.
The lesson is simple, when we mobilise demand from business and match it with inclusive platforms and enabling policy, we create jobs at scale. We must continue removing practical barriers that keep young people out. SAYouth.mobi is zero-rated, offers toll-free support, and provides in-person assistance, because dignity starts with access.
It recognises informal skills and entrepreneurial hustle, not just formal certificates, and is being engineered to interoperate with partner systems through APIs so that a young person builds one profile and navigates many opportunities. That is how we make the system work for the seeker, not the other way around.
Looking ahead, the opportunity and the responsibility is to future-proof. The SA Youth vision includes AI-powered coaching, a unified digital ID aligned to our Mzansi roadmap, and digital wallets for credentials.
As we embrace these tools, we must also confront real risks, like technological displacement openly and manage them together through strong governance in the SA Youth Trust and across our social compact. Innovation must widen the circle of inclusion, never shrink it.
Partnership only matters when it delivers for a young person standing at a crossroads. So, let me be specific about what we will drive from the side of government in the months ahead, working with you:
We will back demand-led pathways, mobility, local delivery, retail services, and the digital merchant economy where platform work can be an on-ramp to
formal employment or sustainable self-employment. We will align activation programmes to these sectors and crowd in private-sector demand.
Working with partners, we will help address practical constraints like driver's licence access and other compliance requirements that lock out otherwise capable youth. If a licence is the key to income, then we must make the door easier to open, affordably and at scale.
We will not accept a world where a TVET graduate is trained for unemployment. Together with industry and our education partners, we will target placement of the remaining graduates from the 20,000-strong cohort and track outcomes using interoperable systems like SITAMAS. Training must be a bridge to income, not a waiting room.
We will finalise API integrations across SA Youth, departmental platforms, and partner systems so that data follows the youth, not the other way around. One login, one profile, many doors.
To our private-sector partners: today is your invitation and your challenge.
To social partners and civil society: help us ensure safety, dignity, and protections in platform work as we scale. Decent work principles must travel with innovation.
Young people must be safe, fairly treated, and able to progress.
And to the young people with us today and across the country: you are not a statistic you are the strategy. The future of work will be shaped by your resilience and creativity. Whether you are using SAYouth.mobi to find your first gig, building a small business on a platform, or stepping into a formal role, know that we are redesigning the system with you at the centre.
Friends, this partnership does more than make announcements; it sets measurable targets and invites collective accountability. If we deliver on today's commitments 10,000 new earning opportunities via the Uber ecosystem, 100,000 interview rides through a multi- partner pledge, interoperable platforms that recognise real-world skills, we will bend the curve toward an unemployment rate below 10% sooner than we think. That is the horizon we must hold together.
Let me thank Harambee and Uber for their leadership, our Programme Director Ms Fifi Peters, our panel of sector leaders, and every organisation ready to pledge and participate.
To the Presidency and my colleagues at the Department: thank you for anchoring a vision that is both ambitious and practical.
I close with this commitment: as Ministry of Employment and Labour, we will convene, we will challenge, and we will clear the path for policy development, coordination, and accountability so that partnerships like this move from pilots to platforms, from single events to sustained ecosystems.
On that note, it is my honour to officially launch the Uber/Harambee Partnership for Economic Participation. Let us work together.
- Ngiyabonga, Thank you -
© 2019 - The South African Department of Employment & Labour
