Over 200 delegates from the business community attended the summit.
Ekurhuleni mayor Mondli Gungubele officially opened the event and pointed out that unemployment and poverty eradication must be systematically and unapologetically tackled head-on.
“The issue of job creation and employability improvement continues to occupy our agenda as the city of Ekurhuleni in view of our high unemployment rate of 38 per cent overall,” said Gungebele.
According to Gungubele, this goal can only be attained by establishing strategic working relationships with social partners such as business, organised labour, civil society and other spheres of government and state owned companies and entities.
Metro Economic Development head of Department (HOD) Caiphus Chauke reiterated the mayor’s words and said he hoped that partnerships would emerge from the conversations conducted during the summit.
“An analysis needs to be conducted, it must be said if we as government have lost the plot, if young people are not coming to the party, or if private businesses are not playing their role,” said Chauke.
“As Einstein said, we can’t do the same thing over and over and expect different results,” he added.
Chauke gave an overview of the metro’s job creation initiatives, pointing out that Ekurhuleni has the highest unemployment rate in Gauteng.
Chauke said the bulk of investment from the metro would be going into education.
“We need to deal with issues of employability, and ask ourselves the question of whether we are producing graduates who are equipped to compete in the job market ,” posed Chauke.
“We have spent R140-million on 20 companies in what is called the contractor development programme, where emerging contractors are trained and employed. In the Graduate Placement Programme, 1500 graduates have been placed, and 322 bursaries have been issued by the metro,” he added.
Other achievements by the metro he said were 610 Community Emergency Response teams trained and employed, 400 reserve force deployed and 1 010 police officers trained and deployed.
Chauke also pointed out that in the absence of work opportunities by default the unemployed are encouraged to go into entrepreneurship.
“Are we not setting them up for failure, because if this is not the case then why are there no strong businesses emerging?” he asked.
Chauke then went on to say that the trick is to strengthen what the city already has, and work on infrastructure improvement.
Captains of Industry CEO and Ekurhuleni Business Initiative (EBI) chairperson Chris Biljon discussed the business opportunities in Ekurhuleni.
He said that despite the negative percentages of unemployment, the community needed to be positive and think outside the box.
“Businessowners needed to reposition their companies in terms of looking at global opportunities. We need to create opportunities for young people to start their own businesses, and we need to start by creating jobs for the people around us; the people that we know,” said Biljon.
Biljon encouraged aspiring businessowners and businessowners alike to tap into the Aerotropolis and all other opportunities that are made available by government.
“As businessowners we need to know each other and build closer relationships, especially with local government,” he added.
Connie Mashego from the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) highlighted that the family set-up needed to be reviewed, because that is where the root of many problems regarding the dilemma of the youth can be found.
She also encouraged businessowners to open up their businesses and create opportunities for young people.
The discussion session was heated as businessowners and young people posed questions to the panel.
Unemployed graduate Nkululeko Nkomo appealed to the metro to make information available at ground level to the unemployed, as they were not getting information about programmes and opportunities.
In response to some of the issues raised, Chauke said no graduate should be unemployed and encouraged young people not to lose their fighting spirit as the power lay in their hands.
Biljon said there were thousands of job opportunities and young people just needed to tap into the market. – @TumeloBoksburg
