Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
The department of employment and labour has launched the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) labour activation programme that aims to create two million jobs over the next three years.
Speaking at the launch in Durban on Tuesday, Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi said the move was “not an ANC electioneering stunt” but rather a commitment made in 2019.
He said it had been delayed because of the Covid pandemic, the July 2021 unrest in Kwazulu-Natal and Gauteng, and the April 2022 floods in KwaZulu-Natal which diverted government resources.
This led to the department’s UIF distributing R64 billion to millions of laid off workers and their families during the pandemic. It had also assisted businesses with Temporary Employment Relief Scheme (Ters) payments following the unrest and floods.
“The labour activation programme was established in response to the economic downturn of 2008. The initiative was aimed to mitigate job losses through collaboration with partners at Nedlac (National Economic Development and Labour Council),” Nxesi said, adding that the government had a role to play in mitigating unemployment as well as creating and preserving jobs.
He said R23.8 billion would be allocated towards implementing the plan, with training opportunities for unemployed people running over the next 12 to 36 months. Opportunities would be available across 22 sectors including agriculture, ICT, construction, engineering, manufacturing, education, transport and mining.
“The money invested in the plan will be recouped by the UIF through contributions and revenue generated from investments,” Nxesi said. “When unemployment is such a problem we can’t say we won’t touch that money, we will save it for a rainy day.”
He said the programme would also support projects across government departments and entities on a “rand-for-rand” funding basis.
For example, it is working with the Industrial Development Corporation and the department of basic education to recruit and pay the salaries of teaching assistants and to employ more than 200 000 graduates as part of the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention.
Nxesi said the Nasi Ispani project launched in Gauteng included an initial 55 projects for phase one of the labour activation programme, which is now being rolled out across the country. It was due to be launched in Cape Town on Thursday followed by other provinces next week.
“We remain deeply indebted to private business for their willingness to work side-by-side with the government in the enormous task of employment creation across various sectors and industries,” Nxesi said.
“Key to the success of our collaboration with the private sector has been the UIF, which continues to fund labour activation programmes through the collection of contributions from employers and employees, and revenue generated from investments, to meaningfully contribute to alleviation of poverty and unemployment in the country.”
He said although the UIF is best known for paying out unemployment and maternity benefits, the UIF Act gives it a much larger mandate to mitigate unemployment, including the provision of Ters grants for distressed companies, training the unemployed and supporting enterprise development.
The labour activation programme was not “a silver bullet” to end unemployment but a “force-multiplier” to mitigate the crisis, the minister added.
“The spread of our implementation nationally will be across every province with 333 recommended projects to provide training, small enterprise support and employment opportunities to 704,000 unemployed people,” he said.
“Projects will be monitored at district level to ensure an even spread across the province. A key benefit to us with this approach is the shared responsibility of managing and monitoring projects.”
He said the department was launching seven projects in KwaZulu-Natal on Tuesday which would benefit 28 000 unemployed people, with a total budget of R771 million, adding: “The total target projects for KZN is 49 projects to benefit 102 500 beneficiaries for a budget of R3.6 billion.”
These projects will be in the textiles, maritime, agriculture, construction, ICT, energy, funeral services, hospitality, landscaping and hospitality sectors.
Nxesi warned training service providers not to abuse the funds.
“We will be monitoring you quarterly and once we realise you are involved in corruption we are going to stop the project and take you on, head on,” he said.
The programme was not an ANC electioneering stunt, Nxesi said. “During the elections after the elections this project will continue. It is not about the elections.”
“These jobs we are trying to create are not for any political party. All the young people are faced with unemployment.”
At the launch, training service providers signed a pledge of their commitment to the programme.
“We were training learners to get their private pilot licences and as deep sea scuba divers, and we were training farmers, focusing on organic farming,” said Thandi Ngcobo, founder of Fuze, which provides training and support in agriculture, aviation, maritime and other sectors.
“Some of them fell out of the courses and some are now working for airlines like Flysafair.”
She said 18 learners had obtained private pilot licences and two had their commercial licences. The company had also helped 500 farming cooperatives to register their businesses and linked them with markets and established strong partnerships with retailers such as Boxer and The Spar Group.
Dingaan Zikhali, who trained as refrigeration technician at Elangeni TVET College, lost his job with international chemical company, Huntsman, when it closed its South African manufacturing facility in 2016. But he reskilled under the labour activation programme and now works for GaucheAir.
“I am a qualified mechanical fitter and this training has helped me because it was an add on to my skills. I am still wanting to write my trade test but it is very expensive,” Zikhali said.
Small Business Development Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams said the project was in line with the National Development Plan’s goal to create 11 million jobs by 2030.