The Employment Solutions and Sheltered Employment Enterprise tell the Employment Services Board that they are frustrated by lack of funding and support in their quest to put more people with disabilities into the labour market.

The Sheltered Employment Enterprise (SEE) is an entity of the Department of Employment and Labour, whereas the Employment Solutions (ES) is a non-profit making organisation which is supported by the Department. SEE deals with the employment of people with disabilities and the ES provides workshops for them.

The Employment Services Board(ESB) undertook visits to the Employment Solutions(ES) and Sheltered Employment Enterprise(SEE) to among others;  assess the nature and extent of delivery of public employment services; implementation challenges; and recommendations on how to better the interventions.

According to Sagren Govender the Chief Director: Work Seeker Services, the Department supports nine workshops around the country. “We subsidise workshops for 92% of their wages and the rest is for services and management costs. We want to subsidise the workshops 100%, however, financial resources do not allow us.

Govender showed a glimmer when he told the meeting that Treasury has upped funds from R7 million to R24 Million, which he said will not cover everyone but will be better than the previous allocation.

“Our factories can accommodate more than 3 000 people with disabilities and due to lack of funds we currently employ 943. We call on government departments to support us by buying our products so we can employ more people with disabilities", said Sibusiso Phakathi the CEO of SEE.

Phakathi also called for departments to procure through the entity. He pleaded with departments to submit their procurement plans on time as they only manufacture products on demand.

He told the meeting that SEE has partnered with special schools to absorb their learners into the labour market. He further highlighted the fact that 100 percent of the entity's employees are people with disabilities. He encouraged people with disabilities to declare when registering on the Employment Services System of South Africa so they can be absorbed by the entity.

One of the challenges the SEE has is lack of support they can offer to employees more especially psychosocial problems these employees have. “We use our instructors who are mainly artisans to deal with such problems. We want to have health care facilities in all our factories to assist our employees", Phakathi said.

Ilze Menitjes, the CEO of Employment Solution told the Board that at times they resort to reducing wages of participants so that they can keep the workshop operating. She told the meeting that they survive through the support they receive from private companies that outsource some of their work to them, which is not enough.

According to both organisations they can assist more people with disabilities if they have financial resources and now they can only accommodate a few.

In concluding the visit, Thembinkosi Josopu Employment Services Board Rotational Chairperson told the two organisations that they heard their challenges and the Board will compile its report and then submit to the Minister of Employment and Labour, TW Nxesi.

For more information, contact:

Teboho Thejane

Departmental Spokesperson

082 697 0694

Teboho.Thejane@labour.gov.za

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Issued by: Department of Employment and Labour

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