The DA has called for the metro to account for the more than R2-million it spent on holding a Youth Expo, last year, which essentially proved to achieve little more than promoting the executive mayor.
In answer to questions posed by the DA in the latest council meeting, MMC for Corporate Services Phelisa Nkunjana reported that the inaugural Youth Career Expo, held in Alberton in 2013, resulted in 531 unemployed youths being placed as interns for a period of 12 months.
Of these, 377 were taken on by metro departments, such as Risk Management Services, Waste Management and ICT.
The DA strongly believes in promoting job creation but, based on the vast numbers of young people who queued for hours last year, the measly result of 531 jobs was not good enough, particularly because the jobs offered were short-term internships and not full-time positions.
“Considering that no real jobs were created, this price tag essentially means that these events become a public relations exercise to promote the metro and the mayor, without actually achieving anything of value,” said Tsholofelo Motshidi, from the DA.
“When asked how the planning of this year’s event would differ from last year’s, Nkunjana reported that the Career Expo and the Job Summit would be held as two separate events, but gave no indication that Ekurhuleni had begun planning early enough, or even learned anything from the teething problems experienced in the first year.”
Logic dictates that there will be even more young people coming out this year for the prospect of a job, and the DA said it was imperative that the metro planned this year’s events properly.
The only way to get real value out of the expenditure is to ensure that real job prospects are provided and that the jobs created are long term and sustainable.
