Addressing the house, Gungubele said that the city is looking to focus on the youth in this financial year.
“About 63% of the youth in our city lack skills development. We as the city of Ekurhuleni are committed to turning this around,” he said
He stressed that the solution does not lie on their shoulders alone and that it is the responsibility of the youth, companies and society to do their part in order to combat the unemployment problem.
“We have some serious challenges with regards to education, but with the democracy in our country, the doors of learning are open to all youth,” said Gungubele.
According to Gungubele, 7 436 job opportunities have already been created in the city, with another 180 000 to be created over the next five years.
He also said that 149 youth were being trained in the waste management sector, 100 were being trained as police officers and 200 were being trained in the fire department sector.
He referred to the job summit held in Alberton from June 11 to 13 as ‘a hive of activity’ and said that the thousands of youth that attended were ‘desperate for jobs’.
“Our youth are being badly affected by drugs and substance abuse, poverty and unemployment. The youth are showing a great hunger to lead this country and we must put proper skills development programmes in place to help them,” Gungubele said in closing.
The other parties present welcomed the mayor’s speech but urged the ANC to implement the plans they have.
They said that young people should not be given a bicycle, they should be given the parts and taught how to put it together, teaching them skills instead of just giving them jobs.
Councillor Hennie van der Walt of the Freedom Front Plus addressed the mayor in saying, “your youth plan is commended and supported, but please Mr Mayor, young, white people should also benefit from these plans.”
The mayor agreed, saying that the youth plans must appeal to a wide demographic of youth, “black, white, brown, yellow, all of them.”
The DA councillors chose rather to focus on the problem of toilets in informal settlements and the problems of water and electricity supplies being cut off in many parts of Ekurhuleni.
“The lack of decent sanitation for hundreds of thousands of people in Ekurhuleni is a national disgrace,” said DA Caucus Leader Shelley Loe.
Speaking about the water and power outages, she said, “hardly a day has gone by in the past month where areas have not been struck by water or power outages, or both. These go on for hours and days, mostly unexplained, with little or no warning and never an apology for the inconvenience caused.”
She went on to speak about the illegal removal of hundreds of people from their homes by the Red Ants.
“The illegal removal of families from their homes is happening far too many times now and has already resulted in one internal inquiry, in KwaThema Extension Five, being conducted by the CCC manager,” she said.
Loe, in closing, said that the mayor needs to accept his responsibility and put his foot down with his party.
“Perhaps you will be giving up your seat to the DA Mr Mayor and then we will prove, just as the DA did in Thlokwe Municipality, that it takes just three months to start making things right if there is political will at the top.”
