@PresidencyZA
President Cyril Ramaphosa has reiterated the government’s commitment to intensify the country’s investment drive and removing the red tape that holds back business growth and greater employment creation.
Alongside these measures, President Ramaphosa said that his administration is harnessing the capacity of the state to respond to the immediate needs of young people.
The President was giving a keynote address on Thursday at the Youth Day commemorations in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, held under the theme, “Promoting sustainable livelihood and resilience of young people for a better tomorrow”.
This year marks 45 years since the uprising by school students against the mandatory use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction and the violent response of the apartheid government.
As the country rebuilds from the pandemic, the President said that government remains focused on growing the economy and creating jobs.
“Now more than ever, we need young people to rally together to confront and overcome the massive challenges facing our country.
“The fact that millions of young people are not in employment, education or training is the greatest challenge facing our country today,” he said.
President Ramaphosa said the apartheid legacy of poverty, unemployment and inequality has, in recent times, been compounded by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the July 2021 unrest and the devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal, North West and here in the Eastern Cape.
He said that government remains focused on far-reaching economic reforms and creating conditions for the expansion of businesses throughout the country.
“It is for this reason that we announced the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention, which is a comprehensive response to the youth unemployment challenge.
“We have also launched the Presidential Employment Stimulus, which supports public and social employment, and which has created close to 880 000 job opportunities since it was established,” he said.
A flagship initiative of the employment stimulus is the school assistants programme, which has placed 287 000 young people in schools across the country.
Ramaphosa said that these young people are accessing meaningful employment while supporting teachers and contributing to positive learning outcomes in schools.
The latest programme to be launched through the employment stimulus is the Social Employment Fund.
The programme has begun to recruit 50 000 participants in community safety, food and nutrition, digital inclusion, and sports, arts and recreation.
“We have just launched a new dashboard for the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention on the State of the Nation website. Members of the public are now able to track detailed progress with implementation and receive up-to-date information about the intervention,” the President said.
(SAGovnews)
