By Mafika Sphiwe Mgcina
June, the month dedicated to the heroism of our youth against the apartheid regime, started on a sorry state after the Quarterly Labour Force Survey released the most shocking statistics about the jobs bloodbath in our country, particularly for the youth.
Stats SA revealed the official unemployment rate among the youth – those between 15 and 34 years – was at 46%. This is coupled by independent research which puts the youth unemployment rate above 70%.This is astonishing, given the fact government has launched a number of initiatives to curb youth unemployment in our country. What we should be asking is: how far have those initiatives yielded the desired results in dealing with youth unemployment?
Theses initiatives, among others, includes: Youth Employment Services, Presidential Youth Employment Initiatives, Tshepo One Million (Gauteng Government Initiative) and more.
The fundamental problem with all these initiatives is they are not streamlined and not talking to each other. Instead, they are competing against each other. Huge amounts of money are being spent by government in launching and administering these initiatives with little results to show on how many of our youth break into the sustainable job market.
Until we streamline these initiatives and make sure there’s synergy and collaboration we will never deal with the youth unemployment issue. All spheres of government, from nation to municipal level, should ensure that there’s intergovernmental collaboration geared towards ensuring that all these initiatives are harnessed and co-ordinated at the central level.
The role of the private sector will also be crucial in ensuring their initiatives to curb youth unemployment is linked with the government initiatives.
With the commemoration of 45 years of the June 16 uprising coming, leaders of political parties across the divide will be criss-crossing the country promising young people that jobs and opportunities will be created to ensure that their misery of joblessness will be addressed. We owe it to the generation of June 16, 1976 that we deal urgently with this ticking time-bomb.
Enough of promises and platitudes, we need tangible solutions to deal with this crisis. Can we make the 46th anniversary of June 16 a report-back session, with measurable statistics on how far we have dealt with the issue of youth unemployment.
*Mafika Sphiwe Mgcina is an ANC Sedibeng Regional Task Team Coordinator.
The Star