Gauteng Premier’s Office fails to create work opportunities for the youth

30 September 2019

The Office of Gauteng Premier David Makhura has failed to meet its set targets for job creation for economically excluded young people in the province.

This was revealed in the Office of the Premier’s annual report for 2018/2019. According to the report the Office had set a target of enabling 36000 economically excluded young people through the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) accessing paid work done on a temporary basis. However, only 3544 young people were employed.

According to the annual report the reason for not employing more youth, was due to delays in the roll out of enhanced EPWP under the Gauteng@work programme.

In addition, the Office of the Premier also set a target of employing 15000 economically excluded young people into long-term, full-time or contract jobs, but they only managed to employ 10968. This target was not reached because of extended delays in realising placements through the Youth Employment Skills (YES) programme.

Furthermore, the target of assisting 4000 economically excluded young people to establish and operate a new enterprise/franchise was also not met. Only 2118 youth were assisted.

I will be tabling questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature to ascertain whether these projects are long-term and sustainable.

It is unacceptable that the Office of the Premier has not met the targets set for creating work opportunities for the youth in Gauteng.

This programme in the Premier’s Office is important as it gives the youth important skills and knowledge needed to access permanent employment.

The DA will be closely monitoring the interventions that the Office of the Premier is putting in place to ensure that all their targets in assisting the youth with skills and work opportunities are met.

Issued by Solly Msimanga, DA Gauteng Provincial Legislature Caucus Leader, 30 September 2019