The mayor was addressing residents on Friday, last week at the service delivery summit in Springs.
Clr Gungubele identified unemployment as one of the main socio-economic challenges facing the city alongside food security and underdevelopment. The City’s official unemployment rate stands at 28,8 percent.
The mayor’s message of hope to more than one million unemployed youth seeks to reveal the city’s plans to undo joblessness in the region.
“We are working on establishing labour desks per ward to be located in the customer care centres. This will help us to zoom into the unemployment situation per ward and we will be able to deploy the necessary intervention and resources to address the problem,” he said.
Already, the mayor has allocated R1 million per ward to respond to the developmental needs of the different wards.
In addition, the City will establish the Job Creation Project Management Office to specifically deal with unemployment.
According to the executive mayor, the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) Grant Funding will be increased from the current R14 million to up to R150 million by the 2014/2015.
“We are also going to extend the EPWP Vuk’uphile Programme beyond the current three years agreement. We are leading the entire country on this programme and we were able to produce about five millionaires from the previously disadvantaged areas,” said the mayor.
The Vuk’uphile Programme equips learners with construction skills and provides them with platform to showcase their skills in real life situation.
