The promises made at the Job Summit may have ignited hope in the lives of many unemployed young people.
It has set itself a target of creating 275 000 jobs annually over five years.
Although it has been met with scepticism from some quarters, at least one business and government led initiative that was launched earlier in 2018 is beginning to bear fruit.
Nearly 18 km from where the Jobs Summit was held, is a youth hub in Tembisa Township where about 60% of young people are jobless.
It is where one of the Youth Employment Service’s first Youth Hub is located. It is a business-led collaboration with Government and labour which was launched earlier in 2018 to stimulate demand.
Its plan is to incentivise businesses to employ young people, giving them a chance at gaining life-changing work experience over three years.
Manager of Yes For Youth, Sihle Mlambo says their youth hub teaches financial literacy and other things.
“In that same space an internet lab is also available for those who need it. Mishack Masipa is now a resident chef at the hub. He is using this space to further develop his culinary skills with the aim of owning a restaurant in the future,” says Mlambo.
Business owner, Meshack Masipa says, “With the Jobs Summit now concluded. The work to create 275 000 jobs begins in earnest.”
In his final address, President Cyril Ramaphosa says based on the interventions of the social partners these jobs are possible.
“Another jobs summit will be held again in two years’ time to evaluate progress. A task team has been set up to monitor the implementation of the resolutions taken.The team will report to the presidency on a quarterly basis,” says Ramaphosa.
President Cyril Ramaphosa says the presidential Job Committee will monitor the initiatives and programmes that stemmed from this years Job Summit.
Closing the Summit, President Ramaphosa says his first instruction to the committee would be to ensure that a jobs summit is held every two years, as it is an important factor in discussing and tackling the issue of unemployment in the country.
Ramaphosa says the task ahead will be to focus on implementation.
“This has been a true festival of ideas that have come forward. We are going to make sure we get the presidential Job Committee that’s going to be set out to monitor the implementation and ensure that all these ideas that have come out of here are properly monitored. I’m going to be proposing that we should have a bi-annual Job Summit. Let’s get together again as this brains trust on jobs to come and evaluate where we are because this is a joint national project and we must get on with it.”
