President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Monday that he will tackle the issue of unemployment on Youth Day.
What is The Presidential Youth Employment Intervention?
On 12 February 2020, Ramaphosa came out saying that he was working on The Presidential Youth Employment Intervention, a five-year plan to tackle unemployment amongst the youth.
The aim was to create two million jobs in the next 10 years for the youth, but by March 2020, South Africa had been hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
The plan was put on hold and backtracked due to the level of unemployment caused by the pandemic. At the time, the unemployment rate amongst the youth stood at 40%, according to Daily Maverick.
According to Ramaphosa, “the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention was built on the understanding that to address the youth unemployment crisis requires innovative thinking and strong partnerships across society.”
“Its ultimate objective is to find models that work, whether in skills development or active labour market policies and to scale these models rapidly to reach as many young people as possible.”
“Most importantly, it recognises that young people must be at the centre of any effort to boost youth employment. Young people are our greatest asset, and our greatest weapon in this fight,” he said.
Cyril Ramaphosa targets unemployment on Youth Day
According to Business Tech, the first quarter of 2021 had 7.2 million unemployed persons, 52.4% of which had not finished matric. Moreover, 37.7% had finished their matric, while 7.5% have other tertiary qualifications and 2.1% were graduates.
The greatest downside of South Africa is its level of unemployment. The president aims to create more opportunities for the youth, for they are the future of tomorrow.
“Everything that we do as a government contributes towards improving the lives of young people. Tackling youth unemployment requires accelerating economic growth, particularly in labour-intensive sectors, and building the capability of the state to fulfil its developmental role,”
“This week, on Youth Day, we will be launching a range of additional measures to create opportunities, enhance skills development, support young entrepreneurs and enable the full participation of young people in the economy.” he said.
