Address by the Minister of Employment and Labour, Hon Thulas Nxesi (MP) on the occasion of the Free State Jobs Breakfast Session; 24 January 2024
Programme Directors, Ms Maneli CDPO, FS and Mr Sipho Ndebele CD (International Relations);
Free State Premier, Honourable Dukwana;
The Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour, Ms Boitumelo Moloi;
DDG: PES, Mr Sam Morotoba and the Senior Officials from the Department of Employment and Labour Head Office, the Provincial Office and the various Labour Centres;
Representatives of Organised Business,
Organised Labour and Community Constituencies in the Free State Province;
Ladies and Gentleman
Good Morning, Sanibonani
Thank you very much for heeding our call to attend this Jobs Breakfast Session so early in 2024 as many companies are still reopening after the festive season.
We convened this session as part of our ongoing attempt to put systemic solutions in place that can produce results that are aligned to the needs of the employers and the broader Free State labour market as part of our South African economy.
Today, Wednesday the 24th January 2024, marks the culmination of our week long careers fair, service delivery and inspections programme that are, by the way, part of the normal day to day activities in our offices.
On Monday the 22th January and Tuesday the 23rd January, we were at Barolong Hall, in Thaba Nchu. We are here at Botshabelo, with this Careers Fair and Integrated Service Delivery programme with other government departments, drawn from National, Provincial and local levels, and also including private sector companies and institutions of learning.
Collectively, we provided careers information to the huge number of work seekers that turned up. We are hoping that, the employment counselling provided and assistance to work seekers to apply for various opportunities will assist, and that within the coming weeks, you, as the employers gathered in this hotel, will approach our Public Employment Services section, to invite these work seekers for interviews for employment in the Free State Province and beyond.
We also conducted Blitz inspections across the Botshabelo to check compliance by employers in this region with our legislation especially in the manufacturing sector. I am concerned about the lower levels of compliance and have already instructed the Inspector General to plan extensive Blitz inspections in this region.
The Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) and the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) are currently working on legislation that is going to respond decisively to the challenge with respect to foreigner’s employment. I can only sound an early warning to employers continuing to employ undocumented migrants to desist – you are storing up problems for the future.
Youth unemployment is a major national challenge and needs urgent and coordinated responses from all of us to address it. The education and training systems suffer from relatively high drop-out rates and failure to address the challenge of high unemployment. Last week, Minister Angie Motshekga published last year’s matric results, with free state leading, highest pass rate. I congratulate the Free State, well done.
Back to our society and labour market challenges, I don’t have to lecture you as employers on the high rate of crime that we are currently experiencing. The youth remain vulnerable in the labour market, it is a ticking time bomb and represents the greatest risk to social stability in South Africa.
Mind-sets need to change, innovations need to be sought and collaborations strengthened to bring about a halt to the staggering unemployment amongst youth. From our side, we have started this initiative - engaging in a number of Jobs and Career Fairs across the country - and we have been running them for the last two years. We have introduced state of the art mobile units that are assisting a great deal in servicing work seekers. We have partnered with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), as well as with the Department of Basic
Education (DBE) in a joint project funded by the European Union to smooth the transition from school to work. We are supporting the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative and coordinating various interventions in this regard. We continue to make funding available under the UIF Labour Activation Program towards various partnership projects designed to create employment. We have also concluded internal government consultations on the National Employment Policy and will be approaching Cabinet before the end of February to release it for public comment.
It is a well-known fact that those that possess appropriate and relevant skills, are able to access available job opportunities to sustain themselves and their families. The possession of appropriate skills becomes the single most critical asset for individuals, businesses and societies. Many experts agree that building basic skills from early childhood, and developing and improving the quality of skills is essential. The importance of skills is even more important today with the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, which brings with it increasing automation and digitization.
Our analysis of the South African labour market suggests that unemployment is a structural phenomenon rather than a phase of the business cycle. As such, policy needs to consider a combination of market and non-market approaches to employment and work-seeker support and initiate activation mechanisms that follow areas of growing labour demand.
The key to combating high unemployment among young people is forging stronger connections among employers, education providers, and youth themselves to build skills that lead to entry-level jobs in growth sectors. We know today, that there is an urgent need for all potential workers to upgrade their skills and reskill, in the face of the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the changing nature of work, spurred by the growth of the platform economy.
The problem of unemployment cannot be solved by the Department alone. It is everyone’s responsibility and we need to continue forging collaborative partnerships.
I have made arrangements with my officials for them to provide you with brief documentation on recent DEL policy and legislative interventions, most of which were tabled at NEDLAC and are in line with the various
International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions that represent international best practice.
You will also receive presentations on the various growth and employment projects coming from our two spheres of government – national and provincial. We are also here to hear your concerns and questions. Where DEL does not have the answers, we will refer your concerns to the relevant authority or department (eg Home Affairs, the DTIC, Small Business Development, etc.)
Youth unemployment is not a unique phenomenon to South Africa, many countries of the world are experiencing similar problems.
Ladies and Gentlemen, what we’re facing, is both an individual tragedy and a community and social tragedy, as well as an economic one. We have a range of government interventions that are very good in cushioning the effect of poverty and unemployment. Equally we do not shy away from the fact that the best social welfare program in the world is a job. The ability to have income and to have the freedom that comes with that is core to being able to build livelihoods and our communities. As the Department, we have decided to establish partnerships, to make employment our mission, and to fund interventions that provide training to our youth and to access formal entry level jobs that will give them an opportunity to grow.
Government, trade unions, community organisations and employers gathered in this room today - you have a tough choice to make. Structural youth unemployment is preventing millions of young men and women from gaining a foothold in the world of work and this has devastating consequences for not only youth and labour markets, but also for governments and businesses, which are seeing consumers with less spending power, workers with fewer skills and lower wages, and citizens increasingly sceptical about society and its institutions.
Employers have a powerful role to play in lowering youth unemployment, and we are making a call to employers to partner with us to jointly guide youth and students into working life through a range of programmes that we have introduced such as the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative and the National Pathway Management.
We call on employers gathered in this hall to register vacancies and available training opportunities in our ESSA system. We are willing and ready to assist you in the recruitment and selection of your future employees free of charge. In other words, no employer will be charged labour brokering fees where you opt to use our systems. We offer similar services free of charge to work seekers.
Please get involved in these initiatives so that you are not left behind: they benefit companies, they benefit work seekers, particularly the youth, and they contribute to economic development and help build social cohesion. I wish you well in your further deliberations.
I thank you.
