Johannesburg - President Cyril Ramaphosa has delivered on his promise to hire 10 000 unemployed young people to help in the digitisation of the Home Affairs records.
These are the words of Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, who said ahead of Ramaphosa’s sixth State of the Nation Address (Sona) that he does not expect the president to address any other issues in his address on Thursday.
“The president has delivered on his promise of hiring 10 000 unemployed young people into Home Affairs for the digitisation of records in the fields of IT and record management, and the announcement was made last week.”
“I do not expect the president to say anything on Home Affairs tonight unless he wants to mention this success,” Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi told Newzroom Afrika before entering the parliamentary precinct.
It would seem that in spite of the many reported failures and empty promises, Ramaphosa has achieved something worth celebrating following last year’s Sona address.
It is not known if Ramaphosa will address the issue of Zimbabwean permits, which are set to expire at the end of June after the permits were extended to this year instead of December 2022.
Last year, during the launch of the programme, Motsoaledi said the department has more than 350 million paper records relating to births, marriages, deaths, and amendments that needed to be digitised, resulting in this bold move that has since borne fruit.
“Following the announcement made by the president, I have made subsequent comments on the acquisition of the 10 000 unemployed graduates. This briefing is to update you on the progress that has been made thus far,” the minister said.
Motsoaledi was speaking just when members of the Operation Dudula Movement were stationed within the City Hall precinct in protest of the Zimbabwe permits and the need for Ramaphosa to address this issue in his address. The lobby group wants to join a court application by the Helen Suzman Foundation in its bid to have the lawfulness of the decision by Home Affairs reviewed.
“We are here to protest against the extension of the Zim permits, and we want Ramaphosa to address this issue in his address tonight. We will be there until Ramaphosa addresses this issue,” said the chairperson of Operation Dudula in the city of Cape Town.
Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi said more than 800 000 young people have been employed since Ramaphosa took over as ANC president.
“It is not true that our president is a lame duck president. We have been able to employ more than 800 000 young people... Our understanding is that employers are employing immigrants because they are cheap labour.”
“We are now changing that, and we are taking this to Parliament to amend the labour laws and the regulations. We are now going to insert quotas in industry, and only in skilled labour will employers be allowed to import skilled labour,” Nxesi said.
The Star