Premier Makhura’s office wastes over R6.6 million on unsustainable job opportunities for youth

5 February 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is disappointed to discover that the Office of the Premier has squandered R6 653 480.00 on unsustainable training opportunities for economically excluded youth in the province.

This was revealed to me in a written reply by Premier David Makhura to my questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) on the training of 2118 economically excluded youth for the 2018/2019 financial year.

According to the Premier, 493 youth were trained to collect data in their area using mobile devices at a cost of R300 per person. However, only 19% of the youth trained under this programme reported that they have a sustainable income.

133 youth were trained to start up their own businesses at a cost of R30 000 per person but only 14% of these businesses are sustainable, while 401 youth were trained to generate an income through sales, while also running projects that support other unemployed youth. Only 49% of those trained have a sustainable income.

In addition, 534 youth that were trained by the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller and the 36 that were trained through the Innovation Hub e-Waste programme have no statistics available as to how many have found sustainable employment or started their own viable businesses.

It is clear that the training provided by the Office of the Premier has no value for money and was clearly just a box-ticking exercise. This shows that the ANC-led government has no clear plan in place to deal with youth unemployment in the province.

Premier Makhura is always boasting about the high number of job opportunities that his administration has created but the numbers clearly show that once the youth are trained through these programmes, they are not able to find long-term employment.

It is high time that the Gauteng government partners with more businesses in the private sector, so that our youth can receive training which leads to long-term employment, or at the very least, work experience. Furthermore, research must be conducted to determine whether the programmes that are offered to our youth will yield positive results in terms of sustainable employment opportunities as well as successful entrepreneurship.

Issued by Solly Msimanga,Leader of the Official Opposition in Gauteng, 5 February 2020