Employment and Labour dept officials visit the Eastern Cape

In a bid to fight the high unemployment and stimulate economic recovery the Department of Employment and Labour took its major communication campaign to Kariega in the Eastern Cape. The department says it’s imperative to register as many job seekers on its database as possible.

According to Stats SA, nearly eight million people are unemployed in the country.

The department targeted young people, pushing them to register on its database. Hundreds of unemployed youth heeded the call. They are hoping to land a job and by registering, it might just improve their chances.

The youth unemployment rate in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro is more than 40%.

Veronica Olivier says she has been able to get the information she was looking for.

“I am very happy that they are here to come and tell the people their rights for them and what they must do if we’ve got a problem. I think people are now going to know what happening around a situation they got and they know how to go ahead and do the right thing for them,” says Olivier.

The youth of the metro are calling for a major intervention from the government.

One of the youth in attendance, Siyabulela Jonas says that he hopes that the government departments will continue to engage communities even after the elections.

“I am very happy that government at last is coming to the people, but my worry is that it should not be a phase thing. We understand that we are in a critical phase now for elections and stuff. People of KwaLanga should enjoy seeing the government coming to them and providing these services. We know when we go to the offices in town, they are very crowded,” says Jonas.

The department says the approach is to intensify economic recovery and get people in the job market. They assist unemployed youth, but also those who were previously employed.

Minister of Employment and Labour, Thulas Nxesi says that they have a labour activation programme.

“We have to create the conditions for the private sector to be able to invest in order to create jobs. But also, the various departments are having their own initiatives, including what we would call state-owned enterprises. They are also having the initiatives. What we are doing, we have a labour activation programme, where we are having a number of workers who might have lost their jobs. We help them in different ways in terms of retraining them but we are also massively training young people all over the country,” says Nxesi.

The next stop for the campaign is the Limpopo province.