BLOUBERG mayor, Serite Sekgoloane, said young people and the problems they faced every day was a main priority for his municipality.
Sekgoloane hosted a youth summit at the Capricorn FET Senwabarwana campus last Friday and addressesd the 2 000 young people who attended this event.
“I am on all the social networks and I interact with young people all the time. This made me realise that they faced challenges every day. Young people face severe unemployment issues in this area,” he said.
He said out of 162 625 people in the Blouberg municipality, 34 233 (49%) are unemployed, of which 47% are young people.
”After realising what the challenge entailed, we came up with a way of tackling unemployment, specifically under young people. We invited 21 state information technology agencies to come on board in helping us with skills development.
“De Beers’ Venetia mine and IronVeld Mining also came on board to assist,” he added.
De Beers public and corporate affairs coordinator, Bonani Nyabane, said the mining industry required a combination of qualifications and competence for work seekers to be successful. ”We offer the De Beers maths and science programme where we target gr. 10 to 12 learners in neighbouring schools of our mines to help them improve their performances in these subjects. Unfortunately we also face challenges where the community struggle to meet our recruitment requirements and this programme is aimed at closing that gap,” he said, adding that their Foundation Learning Certificate offered residents the opportunity to experience the mining world and to understand what mining related careers entailed.
Keneilwe Ndala, a mining engineer from IronVeld Mining, said they offered a community development programme to help residents of the area where the mine operated.
”We commit ourselves to work with the municipality to ensure that young people in the area gain skills and get jobs.”
