Mabuza encourages the growth of women and youth in the workspace
MIDRAND – Deputy President David Mabuza has stressed at that this years Human Resource Development Council of South Africa summit was a reminder of what still needed to be done to fully emancipate women and fulfil the aspirations of those who marched to the Union Buildings in 1956.
Deputy President David Mabuza stressed that more work still needed to be done to fully emancipate women and fulfil the aspirations of those who marched to the Union Buildings in 1956.
Mabuza was virtually addressing this year’s fourth annual Human Resource Development Council of South Africa summit held at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand on August 11. He said the council needed to consider how the summit could advance the struggles against poverty, inequality, patriarchy, exclusion of women and people with disabilities from accessing skills and broader development opportunities across all facets of life.
“At an economic level, recent results from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey reveal that, in the first quarter of this year, structural unemployment stood at 32.6% and this figure is worse amongst young people, standing at 46.3%, and among university graduates at 9.3%. These statistics are real and reflect faces of stifled and deferred dreams, hopes, opportunities and capacities,” he said.
Mabuza added that the council must address the issue of young people who dropped out at various points of their schooling before attaining their matric qualification. “Failure to address these shortcomings adds more numbers to the cohort of young people who are not in employment, education or training. The implications of delaying this response are obvious. It means this is a cohort of young people robbed of practising their natural talents.”
Director in the Department of Higher Education and Training for System Monitoring and Labour Market Intelligence, Mamphokhu Khuluvhe, presented a situational analysis of skills supply and demand in South Africa. The analysis shows a huge disconnect and mismatch within the labour market.
Thembinkosi Josupo of the South African Youth Council who also addressed the summit, said young people were confronted with many challenges which were being tackled insufficiently. He added that many voices and different initiatives were not coordinated, referring to this as ‘territorialism’ in different industries and poorly conceived relationships between structures and accountability lines.
Details: Human Resources Development Council 012 943 2912.
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