Gauteng Premier fails to create youth jobs

20 August 2018  

Gauteng Premier David Makhura’s flagship Tsepo 1 Million programme is failing badly in creating employment for young people, placing only 1742 in long-term jobs in the first quarter of this financial year, compared to the annual target of 15 000 permanent new jobs.

This was disclosed last week on Friday at a meeting of the Gauteng Legislature’s Oversight Committee on the Premier’s Office and Legislature (OCPOL).

According to the First Quarterly Report of the Premier’s Office, which covers the period from April to June 2018, another jobs failure is that only 850 young people got paid temporary work that would develop skills and experience, well down on the quarterly target of 5000 and the annual target of 36 000.

There was also slow progress in assisting young people to establish a new enterprise or franchise - only 438 out of the annual target of 4000 new businesses.

There was more success with training and development, with 17 751 young people getting training and skills development, which is well on the way to meeting the 28 000 annual performance target.

The overall reality, however, is that most of the jobs that the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator claims credit for would have been filled anyway i.e. they are not real new jobs.

As conceded by Harambee: “labour economists disagree about whether a ‘net new job’ is really ever created in a low-growth economy (e.g. the net new job at Burger King really just replaces the job at a local restaurant that loses market share to Burger King).”

They say that “a conservative estimate” is that 20-25% of their placements are net new jobs.

This is very disappointing as we need real jobs, not fake figures for an expensive programme that will cost R117.4 million this year.

Premier David Makhura makes big promises about job creation, but according to Stats SA, Gauteng lost 123 000 jobs in the first quarter of this year compared to the first quarter of last year. This compares to 123 000 net new jobs created in DA-run Western Cape over this period.

A DA government in Gauteng will push for measures that assist the private sector to create real jobs on a large scale by cutting red tape and corruption, and providing the conditions where small businesses can flourish.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Member of the Oversight Committee on the Premier’s Office and Legislature (OCPOL), 20 August 2018