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TACKLING YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT AND DEVELOPMENT ISSUES
TACKLING YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
With high unemployment rates, and especially unemployment among young people, South Africa’s economy isn’t growing, writes Denise Mhlanga
By the rst quarter of 2022, unemployment was at 34.5 per cent, a 0.8 percentage drop from the previous quarter, according to
Statistics South Africa. Youth unemployment remains at a sobering 65.5 per cent – leaving many young people with little hope of ever securing a job.
“We are committed to removing the barriers that keep millions of young
South Africans locked out of economic opportunity by partnering with organisations from the private sector, civil society and the government,” says
Zengeziwe Msimang, chief engagement officer at Harambee Youth Employment
Accelerator. She says they envision a growing South African economy and a society that works, powered by the potential of young people.
Established in 2011, the not-for-pro t social enterprise is a solution-based organisation supporting young people in nding employment. It is SA Youth network’s anchor partner, and partners with organisations, including the National Youth
Development Agency, Department of Trade,
Industry and Competition, Department of
Science and Innovation, Department of
Employment and Labour, Department of
Higher Education and Training, Department of Small Business Development and the
Youth Employment Service.
The SA Youth network is a solution for many young people while the
Presidential Youth Employment
Intervention has partnered with private, civil, and public sector partners to bring together thousands of earning and learning opportunities into one portal –
SAYouth.mobi.
“Across the country, young people aged 18–34 can access jobs, learning and opportunities close to where they live without using any data,” says Msimang.
She says in the rst week of May 2022, Harambee loaded 16 329 vacancies on the SA Youth website, enabled 708 earning opportunities for young people, and supported an additional 11 463 young people on the journey into work.
“These numbers are proof that Harambee can solve the youth employment crisis at scale. Since local government is at the coalface of service delivery, we can help with finding bright entry-level talent, located close to where delivery needs to happen,” she says.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT ROLE
Before the government can tap into solutions like those provided by Harambee and its partners, it also needs to position youth for these opportunities within local municipalities.
“Creating more opportunities for youth in terms of education, skills and employment is a key solution in reducing youth unemployment levels and helping them develop further,” says Nozibele Makanda, portfolio head for health, community services and inclusivity at SALGA. Makanda explains that SALGA’s approach to youth development seeks to assist municipalities by providing guidance and advice regarding youth development, nding solutions and ensuring youth development is well-positioned within local government.
“The strategic framework for youth development at local government level is founded on the legislative and policy framework and supported by an integrated institutional arrangement. It also ensures that
Zengeziwe Msimang
municipalities prioritise the youth and that their speci c needs are catered to as part of daily service delivery of the municipality.” Makanda explains that during the 2019/20 nancial year, SALGA commissioned research to assess local government’s current practices and approach to youth development. A sample was done on ve municipalities in each of the nine provinces.
The research focus areas were institutional arrangements for youth development in municipalities, municipal services and programmes provided to the youth, youth development best practices and establishing existing challenges in addressing youth development.
“Research ndings revealed that municipalities didn’t have dedicated plans that address youth development initiatives or projects,” she says.
Municipalities are at di erent stages in understanding and including youth and other vulnerable groups as part of service delivery. Proper planning, implementation of activities and projects around youth development, monitoring and evaluation as well as setting
aside speci c budgets for these initiatives are some of the steps that municipalities can take to address some of the challenges.
For these initiatives to succeed, municipalities must ensure that all their sta fully understand the importance of youth development, share the same attitude towards youth mainstreaming, and have dedicated personnel who are solely responsible for advocating for youth development and youth issues in all municipal programmes.
MANY CHALLENGES
Makanda says that internally, respondents to the SALGA research cited limited human and nancial resources allocated to youth development, poor co-ordination of youth development programmes, and the lack of youth development priorities as some of the challenges in addressing youth development at local government level.
Externally, those surveyed said there is a huge lack of co-operation from the communities, the government and nongovernmental organisations. Without joint e orts, it makes it almost impossible to address youth development.
To this end, SALGA’s recommendation is that municipalities create spaces for dialogue and consultation with youth and include the youth in policy-making processes.
“We believe that integrating youth into existing municipal policies and fully supporting their participation would result in successful youth-focused municipal development projects,” says Makanda.
Compared to young men, young women su er the most as a result of unemployment, with Harambee data showing that women are six to eight per cent less likely to be working than men. When they do nd employment, they often earn far less than their male counterparts.
Msimang says South Africa has one of the highest data costs on the continent, which hinders many young people from looking for work. “It’s no longer just the scarcity of jobs, job hunting is very costly.” She says, on average, young people spend about R360 per month on data and up to as much as R1 800 for online job searches, applications, social media research and academic work.
Young people told Harambee that due to limited cash, they opt to buy smaller data bundles more often, even if the price per unit is higher than a bulk data bundle purchase.
Msimang says transport is another challenge facing unemployed youth. “Our research shows that taking more than one taxi to work greatly reduces chances of staying in the job because of the greater monthly spend on transport.”
An entry-level worker living in Soweto and earning the legislated minimum wage of R3 500 per month working in Johannesburg would spend an average of R672 on transport, leaving them with R2 828 for the rest of the month to cover rent, food and other basic requirements, for example.
Nozibele Makanda
YOUTH PROGRAMMES
Makanda says SALGA has identi ed youth programmes in municipalities, including Vulindlel’ eJozi, a youth skills empowerment initiative by the City of Johannesburg in partnership with Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator. The programme enables young people to access skills training programmes and entry-level employment. In eThekwini municipality, this programme seeks to empower young people with entrepreneurial skills.
The youth council in Saldanha Bay municipality is focused on ensuring that young people are active participants in municipal processes such as Integrated Development Planning (IDP). IDP’s approach to planning involves the whole municipality and its citizens in nding the best solutions to achieve good long-term development. Young people who are future leaders need to be involved in these planning processes, Makanda says.
The City of Mbombela has implemented the Masisebenze Youth Empowerment Programme along with several subprogrammes and initiatives to help empower youth, especially unemployed youth, on how to tap into employment opportunities and deal with challenges within their communities.
Makanda says another important initiative is the Moretele LM Small Business support programme, which focuses more on youth-owned businesses, women and people with disabilities. In partnership with local economic development, 20 young people within these groups have been given funding to grow their businesses.
For Harambee, the future is exciting. Msimang says working closely with various stakeholders and partners across the country is key to the success of what the organisation is hoping to achieve while ensuring young people are active participants in the economy.
She says through engaging with like-minded organisations, they understand there is no one-size- ts-all approach to solving the challenge of youth unemployment. South Africa is facing an enormous challenge hence there is a need to keep adapting solutions to challenges. She adds that Harambee will continue learning and changing, and importantly, positively impacting the lives of young people who remain at the centre of what the organisation does.
“We have successfully established good partnerships with government, funders, learning institutions, community-based organisations, young people, and employers, and will continue to strengthen these relationships and build even more,” says Msimang. ▪
