Deputy Minister Pam Tshwete: Signing ceremony of 109 youth contractors in Ethekwini Metro

Speaking note by Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Honourable Pam Tshwete on the occasion of signing ceremony of 109 youth contractors in Ethekwini Metro, KZN

Thank you Programme Director Please allow me to greet:

  • The MEC, Mr Jomo Sibiya
  • The Executive Mayor of Ethekwini Municipality, Cllr Mxolisi Kaunda
  • Councillors present here today
  • Senior officials from different spheres of government
  • Youth representatives from different formations
  • Distinguished Guests
  • Ladies and gentlemen

Let me first thank you MEC Sibiya for inviting me to this very important gathering, where 90 youth owned companies will be signing to be appointed through the Siyakha Incubation Programme.

This progressive step by the KwaZulu-Natal government could not have come at the right time, as this month marks 45 years of the June 16 Commemoration in our country, where young people of 1976 took to the streets to protest against the Apartheid unjust policies, and the use of Afrikaans language as the medium of instruction in our schools.

As we always remark, let us say it again that, the youth of 1976 had a particular struggle that they were determined to defeat. Indeed, in 1994, the Apartheid policies were successfully defeated through the ballot box, in a free and fair process. We owe this to our leaders like Nelson Mandela and many others.

Having said that ladies and gentlemen, the youth of today has and continue to battle with their own struggles. We can mention amongst others; Youth Unemployment, Poverty, Inequality, Diseases like HIV and Aids, substance and drug abuse, Women and Children abuse and many others.

To make the matters worse, the country continues to be facing Covid- 19 pandemic and its negative effects. At this point, please allow me to convey our deepest condolences to all those families who have lost their loved ones through this merciless Virus.

Ladies and gentlemen, this year's Youth month Commemoration theme is "Growing Youth Employment for Inclusive and Transformed Society".

I am particularly happy about this programme because, hardly a week ago, we were delivering our budget vote speeches to both National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces where we have indicated our frustration that is caused by the slow pace of women and youth development in our sector.

In this respect, we raised sharply two areas that needed an urgent attention of MECs in the Human Settlements space:

Firstly, in our speech debate of the 18th of May 2021, we lamented the mis-match between unemployed youth and jobs. Secondly, in our debate in the NCOP last Friday, we made a clarion call for MECs to take the agenda of youth and women development seriously.

Ladies and gentlemen, today's programme demonstrates the alignment between policy directives from the national government and implementation by provinces and municipalities.

It is also pleasing to witness different spheres of government, gathered under one roof, talking service delivery to our people. This is a clear demonstration of the District Development Model that was launched by President Ramaphosa two years ago.

We have a national directive that was endorsed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation Address that, we ought to accelerate implementation of the 40 and 10 percent set aside for women and youth contractors. This signing ceremony of youth owned companies is a direct progressive response to that important call.

Two years ago we identified provinces that were not performing very well, and we immediately embarked on road shows where we were offering our direct support in order to reverse the situation.

One of the affected provinces at that time was Northern Cape. After meeting with the Premier and MEC, we received assurance from Premier Zamani Saul that, this would never happen again in his province.

Indeed, in the last financial year which ended in March 2021, Northern Cape was one of the best performing provinces.

The national department has adopted a principle that says, once provinces fail to spend the allocated funds in a financial year, we will take away the unspent funds and re-allocate to performing provinces.

I want to inform you MEC that, should you spend all your allocation for the year, you are placing your province in a better position to benefit from funds that will be taken from those underperforming provinces. This is a promise that I will keep.

MEC Sibiya, let me also assure you that, I will be paying a close monitoring attention to this programme. I will be doing this not because I do not trust your capabilities, but because its success story will enable it to be rolled out nationally. I want all our provinces to do the same.

Lastly, let me make a plea to the participants of this programme that they make this opportunity count. You are called upon to take this opportunity with both hands so that you can benefit from it even long after the programme has come to an end. As the government we are giving you tools to grow even better.

I thank you

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