Remarks by Deputy Minister in The Presidency, Nonceba Mhlauli, on the occasion of the YES Strategy session: The Future of the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative

Programme Directors,
Mr Colin Coleman and Mr Stephen Koseff, Co-Chairs of YES,
Mr Ravi Naidoo, Chief Executive Officer of YES,
Ms Phindile Baleni, Director General of The Presidency
Members of the YES Board,
Representatives from business, organised labour, government and civil society,
Distinguished guests,

Good morning.

Thank you for the opportunity to join you virtually at this important strategy session.
As we gather during Youth Month, we are reminded that this year marks 50 years since the historic uprising of 16 June 1976. The youth of South Africa have repeatedly demonstrated that they do not lack ideas, talent, resilience or courage. What many continue to lack is access to opportunity.

South Africans want a government that works for all, especially for young people, who make up almost 60 per cent of our population. The challenge before us is therefore not whether our young people have potential. The challenge is whether we are creating enough pathways for them to realise that potential.

In my role overseeing the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative, my focus has been on ensuring that youth employment interventions deliver measurable outcomes, that progress is tracked through credible data, and that accountability remains at the centre of implementation.

Over the past year, I have had the opportunity to engage directly with the YES programme and to review its work more closely. What I have seen convinces me that there are important lessons from YES that government should leverage as we scale up youth employment interventions nationally.
The impact of YES is significant.

Ladies and gentlemen, as President Cyril Ramaphosa noted, YES has become the largest corporate-funded twelve-month youth jobs initiative in the world.

The programme has created more than 228,000 youth job opportunities and has achieved consistent annual growth over recent years.

The network of more than 2,000 sponsoring companies, together with thousands of host businesses, represents one of the largest active private sector partnerships supporting youth employment in South Africa.

YES now accounts for the majority of demand-led opportunities within the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative ecosystem.

Importantly, YES is also helping to cultivate entrepreneurship. Many young people who complete the programme go on to start businesses of their own, creating opportunities not only for themselves but for others.

These achievements deserve recognition.

What makes the YES model particularly noteworthy is that it delivers these outcomes without direct taxpayer funding. Through the B-BBEE recognition framework, government has created an enabling environment, while business has stepped forward with investment, innovation and implementation capacity.

This is exactly the type of public-private partnership that South Africa needs more of.
Programme Director, I would also like to congratulate YES on receiving the SENTECH Africa Impact Tech Award earlier this year.

The award highlights something that is sometimes overlooked. YES is not only a youth employment programme. It is also a technology-enabled platform.

I have seen first-hand the monitoring and evaluation systems that have been developed. These systems allow YES to operate at scale, maintain quality, and achieve impressive levels of cost efficiency.

Equally important is the commitment to independent verification. Every registered programme is subject to third-party verification through accredited agencies. This gives confidence to government, business and the public that the outcomes being reported are credible and measurable.

Ladies and gentlemen,

While we celebrate these achievements, we must also confront reality.

South Africa continues to face an unprecedented youth unemployment crisis. The latest labour market data reminds us that too many young people remain excluded from economic opportunity.

The question before us is therefore: what must we do next?

Allow me to propose five areas of focus.

Firstly, we must make participation easier.

In the 2026 State of the Nation Address, President Ramaphosa committed that government would introduce measures to make it easier for companies to participate in YES.

As the Deputy Minister responsible for oversight of the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative, I intend to ensure that government honours this commitment. We must remove unnecessary barriers and create a more enabling environment for businesses that are willing to invest in young people.

Secondly, YES should play a more central role within the broader PYEI ecosystem.

YES is the official demand partner of the initiative and possesses deep relationships with the private sector. As government refines and expands the PYEI strategy, we should draw more deliberately on the experience, insights and capabilities that YES brings.

Thirdly, we must better align private sector commitments with youth employment outcomes.

South Africa hosts numerous investment conferences, sector engagements and business pledges. We should work more closely together to ensure that a portion of these commitments is translated into concrete opportunities for young people through proven mechanisms such as YES.

Fourthly, we must strengthen pathways from education into work.

This includes supporting TVET college students, graduates and young people entering the labour market for the first time.

Workplace experience remains one of the most important factors in determining employability. We therefore need stronger partnerships that allow businesses to use youth placements as part of their broader skills development strategies.

We must also continue engaging National Treasury and other stakeholders on incentives that support youth employment and ensure they remain fit for purpose in a changing economy.

Finally, we must place monitoring, evaluation and learning at the centre of everything we do.

Too often programmes focus on inputs rather than outcomes.

The Presidential Youth Employment Initiative must continue building a culture of evidence-based decision-making. We must know what works, what does not work, and where resources can have the greatest impact.

Rather than creating parallel systems, there may be opportunities for closer collaboration with YES to strengthen monitoring and evaluation across the broader ecosystem.

Programme Director,

The future of youth employment in South Africa will not be secured by government alone. Nor will it be secured by business alone.

It will require a genuine partnership between government, the private sector, organised labour, civil society and young people themselves.

The success of YES demonstrates what is possible when we align incentives, focus on measurable outcomes and work together towards a common objective.

As we approach the second half of this decade, our task is clear: to move from isolated successes to systemic impact; from programmes to pathways; and from opportunity for some to opportunity for all.

I look forward to continuing our partnership as we build an economy that creates work, dignity and hope for South Africa's young people.

I thank you.