Minister of Employment is hiding her department's failure to create new job opportunities this year

7 October 2024

The Minister of Employment and Labour, Ms Nomakhosazana Meth, has today replied to BOSA Leader Mmusi Maimane’s question about her department’s new Labour Activation Programme (LAP) announced earlier this year. The programme intends to recruit 360 000 unemployed people into skills development and employability enhancement programmes in this financial year.

When asked for the total number of unemployed people that have been recruited to date, and whether it will reach its annual target, the Minister flatly refused to respond. Instead, she shirked responsibility for one of her own department’s flagship programmes and instead passed the buck to others.

The actual action of creating jobs, she said, “is the responsibility of all spheres of government, the state entities, the private sector, communities and individuals themselves”. The posture taken by the Minister reveals she is hiding the department’s poor performance in its mandate to create jobs.

South Africa faces an unemployment crisis that requires urgent action. BOSA  will use every platform available to advance this agenda on behalf of the 11.5 million South Africans desperate for a job.

Issued by Roger Solomons, BOSA Acting Spokesperson, 7 October 2024