To commemorate the sacrifice made by the youth of 1976 during the struggle for liberation in South Africa, eThekwini Municipality will galvanise young people across 103 municipal wards into action so they can push the boundaries and become the authors of their destiny.
The municipality has established the Youth Development Office as part of the Mayoral programme to ensure that young people are fully integrated into the mainstream economy and not perpetually dependent on the state.
This office will facilitate the formulation of youth development policies to serve as council guidelines during the co-ordination and implementation of youth development programmes, and provide a range of services, opportunities and support to young people.
During the Freedom Day celebrations on April 27 this year, President Jacob Zuma said: “We can and should make our economy receptive to employing young people and to (enabling) the youth to create their own jobs through becoming entrepreneurs.”
Government is committed to ending the feeling of hopelessness and frustration among the youth, particularly in the townships and rural villages, because it is such frustration that leads to some of our youth being involved in criminal activities or alcohol and drug abuse.
At the recent opening of the National Consultative Conference to discuss the draft National Youth Policy (NYP) 2015-2020 in Johannesburg, Deputy Minister in the Presidency Buti Manamela said that when taking into consideration the National Development Plan 2030, the Industrial Policy Action Plan, the New Growth Path and the African Youth Charter, the drafting of the new policy process was initiated last year, when young people made input and expressed their needs, interests and aspirations.
The policy framework outlines the development plan for young people over the next five years.
The NYP 2020 covers areas such as access to education, skills, competence development, employment and sustainable livelihoods, youth leadership and participation, health and welfare, peace and security, environment protection and cultural and moral values.
In line with national government’s youth development plans, the municipality has prioritised youth and skills development by allocating a budget of R65.8 million towards youth development initiatives for the 2015-2016 financial year.
Specific focus will be shifted to the downtrodden youth in line with the 2015-2016 financial year theme for the municipality, which is: “Changing lives through radical economic transformation and accelerated service delivery.”
Government has identified that poverty, inequality and unemployment are the main challenges that face our youth.
According to Statistics South Africa’s 2011 census, the youth unemployment rate in eThekwini is 39 percent.
To address some of these issues, the municipality has adopted three broad interventions to manage the scourge of unemployment in the city.
The first approach includes the engagement of discouraged workers predominantly found in townships.
The second, facilitating the introduction of unemployed youth into the mainstream economy through learnerships and the rolling out of public works programmes.
For the third, the municipality has implemented programmes to support emerging growth sectors such as tourism.
The city has made a concerted effort to promote youth employment in order to increase the city’s employment absorption rate.
Our various skills development programmes, including learnerships, apprenticeships and internships across several units in the city, have provided support and empowered thousands of young people.
Importantly, through large- scale infrastructure projects, the municipality has made significant strides towards skills enhancement, poverty alleviation, economic development, provision of housing, supporting informal traders and employment creation.
For instance, since construction started in April 2014 for the Integrated Rapid Public Transport Network, GO!Durban, 2 622 youths have been employed.
Over the past four years, the municipality has also been supporting young and emerging local fashion designers.
Close to 100 designers have been trained in business and technical skills, and offered the opportunity to engage with industry experts, while 34 have been sent on an international fashion internship programme in Milan, Italy.
This programme has started to bear fruits as some designers are now running successful businesses.
The municipality has also invested more than R77 million towards the Durban Business Fair over the past 15 years.
This initiative has proved to be a great success and small companies, mainly headed by young people, have excelled. Some of these companies have achieved a turnover of more than R50 million and have created over 2 000 sustainable jobs.
Key youth development programmes to be launched by the municipality this month include the Student Financial Aid Fund, which offers bursaries to learners who come from disadvantaged backgrounds to ensure that they have access to education.
The Mayoral Cup, aimed at encouraging young people to be actively involved in arts, culture, sports, recreation and heritage in order to create a more cohesive society, was unveiled recently.
The city will also host the two-day Youth in Business Summit. During this, young people will be addressed by sector specialists, policy experts, government leaders and officials, who will share knowledge and discuss solutions to the challenges facing young entrepreneurs.
The event will focus on entrepreneurial development, with emphasis on creating an environment conducive for the start-up and development of micro and medium business ventures as key drivers for economic growth and job creation.
Through partnerships with stakeholders such as the University of KwaZulu-Natal, International Business Machines Corporation, Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry and many others, the city has implemented programmes which include Innovate Durban and the Hackathon Youth Challenge, aimed at encouraging young people to be independent thinkers and come up with innovative business ideas.
The city remains committed to the development of young people to enable them to have the skills and confidence to take up leadership positions in business, politics or civic life. As government, we believe that investing in the youth and paying particular attention to their skills development is crucial for the country’s future economic growth.