Chairperson; Ms Aiko Doden

Let me thank Dr Tanaka and the Co-Organisers of this seminar for providing me with an opportunity to share with you our local experiences with the global problem of youth unemployment.

A significant component of the South African population, like in many African countries, is characterised by people under the age of 35 years. 

The latest studies show that almost three quarters (72 per cent) of South Africa’s unemployed are younger than 34 years.

Noting the challenge that we are currently facing in South Africa, our government, in collaboration with social partners, has begun to address this problem and I have also ensured that the policy matters relating to youth development are located in the Presidency under the Ministry of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation.

We arrived at this decision being inspired by a clarion call once made by one of the African National Congress Presidents, OR Tambo, when he said, “a nation that does not take care of its youth has no future and does not deserve one”.

For the next 20 years, South Africa will have over 14 million young people between the ages of 15 and 29. This number will peak in 2021, reaching 15.1 million. 

This presents us with a tremendous opportunity - but it also constitutes a serious challenge, given that joblessness in South Africa tends to mirror our historical past where 65% of our unemployed are black youth.

Furthermore, the South African economic legacy lies in the distorted pattern of ownership and economic exclusion created by apartheid policies and, as such, the effects of decades of racial exclusion are still evident in both employment levels and income differentials. 

The system of apartheid also created a serious skills deficit in our economy. We are also hosts to large numbers of young people from our continent. 

To deal with this challenge, regional Ministers responsible for youth are meeting in the Kingdom of Swaziland currently in this regard.

In order to address the above challenges, the Government, along with our social partners, continues to work hard to implement policies that have a potential to transform the South African economy, including reducing high levels of inequality, creating decent jobs, and reducing the concentration of economic ownership to a small section of our society.

South Africa has recently adopted the National Development Plan, supported by the New Growth Path and other programmes. 

The Plan calls on us to look beyond the constraints of the present and to look at the long-term transformation imperatives of the next twenty to thirty years.

Youth unemployment features prominently in our National Development Plan because we recognise that South Africa has an urbanising and youthful population that bears the brunt of unemployment.

We have developed a number of sectoral strategies especially focussing on skills development to meet these challenges.
 
The National Development Plan is our blueprint document that will guide us through this challenging task.

We recently negotiated a Youth Accord between government, business, labour, civil society and youth organisations. This will go a long way in addressing our challenges. We are also considering a revised youth employment incentive that is aimed at boosting opportunities for young work seekers.

Excellencies;

The New Growth Path has identified areas in our economy that have the potential for creating employment on a large scale.

We have termed these the “jobs drivers”, being sectors where employment creation is possible.

These are infrastructure, the agricultural value chain, the mining value chain, the green economy, manufacturing sectors, tourism and certain other high-level service sectors.

The New Growth Path, despite the challenging global environment, is poised to enhance our interventions that target youth employment.

Chairperson, the challenges of youth development confront all of us on the continent and it requires a collective effort of all of us.
 
The outcomes of this summit need to pay special attention to issues of youth development. We should place skills development at the centre of our strategy.

I thank you.