Johannesburg - The youth wage subsidy is not the only remedy for youth unemployment, Deputy Minister of Performance and Monitoring in the Presidency Buti Manamela said on Monday.
“The Employment Incentive Bill is not the panacea to resolving youth unemployment,” Manamela said at The New Age's breakfast briefing in Johannesburg.
The bill, also known as the Youth Wage Subsidy Bill, was enacted last year.
Manamela said it was important to ensure that the youth wage subsidy did not undo progress made in the workplace.
“We have to ensure that the bill does not maximise tension in the workplace, where employers replace older workers with young people.”
Manamela said the subsidy should be located within government's policy of eradicating unemployment.
“It would be interesting to see what impact the youth wage subsidy will have in this regard,” he said.
Manamela, as secretary of the Young Communist League of SA, opposed the bill last year.
Reacting to the tabling of the bill in Parliament last year, Manamela said the bill appeared to have been rushed and misleadingly appeared to ensure that older and non-qualifying employees would not be displaced. - Sapa