MEC addresses Freedom Square residents about jobs

Following a visit to the community of Freedom Square Informal Settlement last month, where the Gauteng MEC of Social Development Nandi Mayathula-Khoza distributed food parcels, the question of skills development was raised by the community as critical.

As a result, MEC Mayathula-Khoza revisited the community to address issues of skills development and to distribute gardening implements at the Moriting Park on Tuesday last week.

Together with the provincial Tshepo 500 000 programme, an employment creation and entrepreneurship development aimed at training, skilling and mentoring 500 000 young people through a set of projects, the Gauteng government engaged with the community of Freedom Square about the possible opportunities and skills development programmes available for the youth to start businesses.

Some stakeholders who took part in the event were representatives of various NGOs, ward councillors, developmental organisations, private sector, state organs, government departments and the community at large.

Addressing the residents, MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza said the province contributes 36 percent to the country’s GDP, 40 percent of total industrial output and 60 percent of exports.

“Our province is the biggest contributor to national employment and the number of employed people grew from 2.7 million in 1995 to 4.88 million people in 2014. Yet poverty persists and we remain confronted by challenges of hunger and malnutrition.

“Our war against poverty has intensified. We are now implementing a comprehensive profiling of all households situated within the 50 poorest wards in the province. These include coloured and Indian communities,” she explained.

MEC Mayathula-Khoza said individual households are being profiled and referred for interventions via the National Integrated Social Information System (NISIS).

“These interventions provide some relief to the 22.9 percent of the poorest households in our province. In response to household poverty, we will implement a single window that provides a basket of services and social assistance in a coordinated way.

“We are pro-poor. We have made poverty public enemy number one. We have genuine empowerment programmes for our people. Since 2014, we have procured goods and services from over 487 co-operatives and a further 29 small-scale farmers have been supported to provide goods to our food banks.”

“Creating sustainable and decent employment through a growing and inclusive economy is key in reducing the number of people on grants. Our flagship programme to move people, especially young women, out of welfare into employment is beginning to yield positive results. Since 2014, we have moved 4 444 people, mainly young women, into productive and sustainable economic activities.

“Targeting empowerment of girls in particular, we are implementing genuine empowerment programmes for our people to move them from dependency to self-reliance. The Welfare to Work (W2W) is our fifth key priority and is allocated a budget of R18-million in this financial year,” said MEC Mayathula-Khoza.

The W2W aims to either move youth who are on welfare into permanent employment or provide further education opportunities. The project involves putting welfare recipients in a work environment provided by host NGOs. It introduces them to public and private sector skills development programmes and work opportunities. This helps to reduce dependency on the welfare system and assists them in being self-reliant.

In December 2014, Gauteng Premier David Makhura launched a sustainable job creation programme called the Tshepo 500 000 to help young unemployed graduates and matriculants to acquire further skills, sustainable employment or to participate in entrepreneurship.

The programme is aimed at reducing the high levels of unemployment and poverty by contributing to the creation of one million jobs in the Gauteng Province, providing livelihoods for the poor, youth, women, people with disabilities and children of military veterans.

“Through our War on Poverty programme, the department seeks to improve the standard of living for the people of Gauteng,” said MEC Mayathula-Khoza.