Youth dominate Ramaphosa newsletter

Siyabonga Sithole

“No society can expect to grow or thrive when the vast majority of its young people are out of work. Our foremost priority as government is to achieve higher rates of inclusive growth that generate sustainable jobs at a scale of social need,” these are the words of President Cyril Ramaphosa in his weekly newsletter on Monday.

While the country is still trying to wrap its head around the “Farmgate” scandal amid calls for him to step aside.

Ramaphosa has taken the opportunity presented by the new week to pay tribute to the youth of 1976 and the current generation of young people ahead of Youth Day Celebrations on Thursday.

“ Later this week, we will commemorate Youth Day in honour of the brave sacrifices of the generation of 1976 in its struggle against an unjust and illegitimate regime.Today, the youth of South Africa confront new struggles in the quest to lead lives of dignity and in pursuit of a better life. Though we have made substantial progress in broadening opportunities for young people in basic and higher education, millions of young people remain unemployed,” Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphisa said the priority of his government is to achieve higher rates of inclusive growth that is able to generate sustainable jobs for the millions of young people struggling to access job opportunities.

This he said will be done through public and private partnerships as well as through implementing economic reform and pursuing industrial policies that support labour-intensive growth sectors of the economy. His push for a social employment fund also dominated his weekly newsletter published this morning, 13 June 2022.

“The social employment fund will partner with non-governmental organizations across the country to deliver “ work for common good" . This work in areas like community safety will create 50 000 new work opportunities in the first phase before scaling up in subsequent phases,” Ramaphosa says.

He said the social fund has a unique feature that recognizes unemployed young people in communities as a powerful resource for development and not merely as a problem to be solved, adding that the country has a range of issues that need to be addressed in order to generate an improvement in unemployment rate affecting young people in the country.

Another of his programmes that is being implanted since then state of the nation address early this year, is the “revitalised national youth service which he says will too create over 50 000 jobs.

“ This programme will create a further 50 000 jobs for unemployed young people performing acts of service across the country, while providing much-needed work experience and reinforcing the value of active citizenship,” he added.