In the wake of the latest proposals in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD’s) report on the South African economy, it becomes more urgent for the various strata of society to refine strategies aimed at addressing the escalating unemployment among the youth.
However, simply to propose short-term measures will not wish away this challenge. Unlike many European countries which have ageing populations, South Africa has a mainly youthful population, demonstrated in the last general elections and confirmed recently by the 2010 mid-year population estimates report released by Statistics South Africa.
While some negative characteristics of this youthful population can be seen during community protests, by going out in their numbers to vote in the last elections young people showed that they wanted a bright future both for themselves and for the country. However, the negative elements suggest that, if not carefully guided, their energies can be misdirected or even manipulated by those with malicious intent.
In August 2006 Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana referred to it as the youth unemployment time bomb. He cautioned that it is about to explode unless the country provides access to learning, livelihood opportunities, employment and other aspects that make up the socioeconomic spectrum.
The OECD report contains some progressive recommendations, including improved basic education, job-search assistance and better access to credit for small enterprises. But the training-based wage subsidy has a high potential for unintended consequences and will do very little to improve the conditions of youth. Instead of decisively dealing with the challenge, the proposal could turn young people into glorified slaves of companies in the interest of maximising profits.
For example, there is the potential cycle of hiring a young person for a chosen period at a minimum wage and then releasing that person, without any clear exit opportunities, back into the ranks of the unemployed. Lessons from interventions of a similar nature should teach us never to commit such expensive mistakes without at least modifying areas where they failed.
Interventions such as learnerships, employer subsidies and internships have failed to make a meaningful impact on youth unemployment. Learnerships were implemented on the premise that they would create a skills base that would be absorbed by the labour market. Instead, they created unsustainable expectations among young people, as they were not absorbed into the labour market.
Almost the same can be said about internships. Even with the increasing numbers of unemployed, skilled young people, the number of unskilled young people still far outweighs the ability and willingness of firms to make a meaningful contribution.
What is required is a multidimensional approach that will deal with both basic and higher education, while addressing a basket of issues relating to government policies and programmes, the labour market and the private sector’s commitment to develop, nurture and retain young talent. There is a need for structured and targeted skills development programmes that grow the country’s economy while improving the quality of service delivery. Such interventions will also open up self-employment opportunities for the youth.
At local government level we are sitting with huge skills shortages, resulting in service delivery being hampered. This provides an opportunity for government to implement skills development programmes that address service delivery limitations in municipalities while enhancing young people’s skills. One such programme is the National Youth Service programme, implemented by the National Youth Development Agency in partnership with government departments.
Furthermore, the system of basic education must be diversified to have both academic and technical streams, so that pupils leave school with skills to fall back on.
Basic technical subjects such as carpentry, sewing, cooking, agriculture and mechanics have to be reintroduced at basic-education level. These must not be seen as extramural subjects but as part of the education system. Emphasis should be placed on interventions such as artisan training, to ensure that young people are able to improve their livelihood opportunities when they leave school. It is encouraging to note that this is the route the department of higher education is adopting.
There can be no uncertainty about the need to make resources available to allow young people either to start businesses or to expand existing ones. Given the government’s vision and commitment to tackling this problem, these radical interventions are required to halve unemployment by 2014 and to help young people to participate in the mainstream economy.
Andile Lungisa is the chairperson of the National Youth Development Agency and deputy president of the ANC Youth League. He is writing in his personal capacity.