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The launch of the Presidential Stimulus to Jobs last week marks a fundamental shift in the government’s approach to tackling unemployment, says President Cyril Ramaphosa.
“We are undertaking an ambitious and far-reaching public investment in human capital, with the State as the creator and enabler of jobs. The stimulus to presidential employment is unprecedented in its scale and breadth, with a public investment of R100 billion over the next three years.
“We will protect and create directly funded jobs and livelihood support interventions as the job market recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. Each of these is ready for implementation and adds to existing commitments, ”the president said in his weekly letter to the nation on Monday (October 19).
Ramaphosa said last week that the government aims to create more than 800,000 job opportunities in the coming months, to combat the 2.2 million jobs lost in the last quarter during the height of the Covid-19-related lockdown.
The job stimulus, said the president, also includes new and innovative approaches, and is not just an extension of existing programs.
“This includes a focus on what we have called ‘social employment.’ We work from the premise that there is no shortage of work to be done to address the many social problems in our society. The goal is to support the considerable creativity, initiative, and institutional capacities that exist in society at large to engage people in jobs that serve the common good.
“This work covers a variety of topics, including food security, ending gender-based violence, improving informal settlements and much more,” she said.
He said this will complement the efforts of the public sector, allowing for greater scale and social impact.
The stimulus includes a new national program to employ up to 300,000 teachers and school assistants. “Schools are making these appointments right now, providing new opportunities in all communities across the country,” Ramaphosa said.
“Public employment is not just for unskilled work. There is a cross-cutting focus on graduates, with opportunities for nurses, science graduates, artisans, and others.
“The stimulus will also protect jobs in vulnerable sectors that have been greatly affected by the pandemic. Support will be provided to early childhood development professionals, primarily self-employed women. More than 74,000 small farmers will also receive subsidies for production inputs, ”he said.
Public employment, Ramaphosa said, will create jobs at scale in the short term as markets recover and create social value in the process.
“In this time of great upheaval, we would be doing ourselves no favors by making unrealistic promises that raise expectations, only to fall short when they are not kept. That is why each of the employment and livelihood support interventions is fully funded, with a clear implementation plan, ”said the president.
He said that the stimulus to employment is not about vague commitments for some time in the future, “but about the creation of jobs here and now.”
“The stimulus is the result of extensive consultation with national departments, provinces and metropolitan areas to quickly design employment programs that can be implemented or expanded in six months.”
Implementation departments and other stakeholders were rigorously assessed on their implementation capacity, Ramaphosa said.
“In each of the programs that benefit from the stimulus, the opportunities will be publicized widely and the recruitment will be fair, open and transparent.”
Read: For every R10 contributed by the government, only R3 is used for actual service delivery – report
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