Let’s develop district-based compacts to tackle unemployment - Employment and Labour Deputy Minister
Employment and Labour Deputy Minister Boitumelo Moloi calls for district-based collective efforts towards solving unemployment.
Addressing a business breakfast session held at Molopo Travel Inn, in Vryburg, North West Province, Moloi said it was a moral responsibility to solve this phenomenon as a collective.
“Employers need us and we need business to work together. Ours is to regulate and create a conducive environment. We need to pull all our resources together and implement job creation ventures,” she said.
Moloi said the Department has implemented a number of new job opportunities, provided career counselling to thousands and assisted in the placement of 60 000 workseekers in job opportunities.
She said the number of job seekers - amounting to millions - that are registered in the Department’s Employment Services of South Africa (ESSA) matchmaking system, compared to those placed shows that there is a problem.
“We need to jointly resolve the challenge facing us. We need to move beyond rhetoric. We need to create pacts. We need to do this district by district. Our department through its entities is malleable to support in job creation,” she said
The Department of Employment and Labour, North West Province, in collaboration with Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality has this week been in the province to provide a number of Departmental services culminating in the hosting of the business breakfast and from today (9 November) the hosting of a two-day Jobs Fair in Taung.
The Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality, formerly the Bophirima District Municipality, is one of the four districts of the North West province. The others are Bojanala Platinum District, Ngaka Modiri Molema District and Dr Kenneth Kaunda District. The seat of the Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality is Vryburg . North West has an over 50 percent unemployment rate. The Dr Ruth Municipality is the largest beef producing district, including maize and peanuts.
Also addressing the breakfast session was Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) Chief Director: Corporate Services, Advocate Mzwanele Yawa who said the Fund was open to doing business of job creation. He invited stakeholders to submit solid and viable project proposals with a job-creation propensity.
Business pledged to bring job opportunities in the agriculture-related value chain and auto sector.
Meanwhile, the Jobs Fair is an initiative that aims to present possibilities and solutions that can strengthen the capacity of the department and its partners to deliver on creating employment for the unemployed, particularly the youth in the North West Province.
The multi-pronged Jobs Fair will see the Department in partnership with other stakeholders, including Government Departments, Seta’s, employers and community organisations engaging with the unemployed.
Tomorrow’s programme for Jobs Fair and launch of the Mobile Employment Centres is as follows:
Date: 10 November 2023
Venue: Taung Depot Hall
Time: 08h00 – 16h00
For media enquiries kindly contact:
Botsang Huma
Provincial Communication Officer: NW
Cell: 082 082 497 7438
E-mail: botsang.huma@labour.gov.za
Teboho Thejane
Departmental Spokesperson
Cell: 082 697 0694
E-mail: Teboho.Thejane@labour.gov.za
