DA claims Makhura wasted approximately R6.6m on ‘unsustainable job opportunities for youth’

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Democratic Alliance (DA) claimed Gauteng Premier David Makhura and his office wasted approximately R6.6 million on “unsustainable training opportunities for economically excluded youth in the province”.

The DA’s MPL Solly Msimanga said: “This was revealed to me in a written reply by Premier David Makhura to my questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) on the training of 2,118 economically excluded youth for the 2018/2019 financial year.”

Msimanga said that according to Premier Makura, only 19% of 493 youth that were trained to collect data in their area using mobile devices at a cost of R300 per person reported that they have a sustainable income.

Msimanga said that Premier Makhura’s written reply revealed more points that:

• 14% of 133 youth that were trained to start up their own businesses at a cost of R30,000 per person, reported that their businesses were sustainable.
• 49% of 401 youth that were trained to generate an income through sales, while also running projects that support other unemployed youth, reported that they have a sustainable income.
• 534 youth that were trained by the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller and the 36 that were trained through the Innovation Hub e-Waste programme have no statistics available as to how many have found sustainable employment or started their own viable businesses.

“It is clear that the training provided by the office of the premier has no value for money and was clearly just a box-ticking exercise. This shows that the ANC-led government has no clear plan in place to deal with youth unemployment in the province,” said Msimanga.

“Premier Makhura is always boasting about the high number of job opportunities that his administration has created but the numbers clearly show that once the youth are trained through these programmes, they are not able to find long-term employment,” he added.

Msimanga suggested that in order for the youth to receive training which led to long-term employment, the Gauteng government would have to partner with businesses in the private sector.

“Furthermore, research must be conducted to determine whether the programmes that are offered to our youth will yield positive results in terms of sustainable employment opportunities as well as successful entrepreneurship,” he concluded.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.