The Deputy President said this when he participated in the debate on The Presidency Budget Vote during a hybrid sitting of the National Assembly on Wednesday.
“Our priority as this Administration, is to reskill, retrain and support these approximately 3.5-million young people not in employment, education or training to address the emergent skills mismatch.
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“It is within our power to translate South Africa’s demographic dividend into practical benefits, by aligning skills to industry needs,” he said.
This comes at the back of this week’s release of the quarterly labour force survey by Statistics SA, which found that in the first quarter of 2021, the unemployment rate stood at 43.2 per cent, with youth unemployment standing at 74.7 per cent.
Addressing the National Assembly, the Deputy President said during this Youth Month, The Presidency recognises the past, present and future role of young people in shaping and influencing the political, economic and technological landscape of our country.
“During all periods of social change and reform in our country, the masses have always cherished and trusted young people as custodians and carriers of hope in the development of our nation.
“As a people, our expectations on the youth is a firm belief that the sustainability of our democratic order and state, would best be achieved when they are active in public affairs.
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“We are mindful that the youth of our country is burdened unfairly so, with challenges of structural unemployment, lack of adequate skills for demands of this century, and general exclusion from meaningful activities that can bring material meaning to their young lives.
“According to the StatsSA Quarterly Labour Force Survey released yesterday, the youth aged 15-24 and 25-34 years recorded the highest unemployment rate of 63.3 and 41.3 per cent respectively. This is a cause for genuine alarm.”
The Deputy President said the reality has further been made more urgent by the COVID-19 pandemic, wherein certain industries have been completely redefined.
“That is why at the level of the Human Resources Development Council, we are recalibrating the focus of our Human Resource Development Strategy towards developing skills and training that is innovation-led, entrepreneurial-focused, and technologically advanced.
“Such focus would complement the implementation of a mixture of interventions under the Presidential Employment Stimulus package,” he said
