In Kariega, Eastern Cape, the Department of Employment and Labour initiated its major communication campaign in an effort to tackle the high unemployment rates, as well as to stimulate economic recovery.

The campaign targeted the youth and encouraged them to register on its database. The event was met with success, as hundreds of unemployed young people – in the hopes of being hired and improving their chances of it – engaged with them.

According to the government, this approach is to stimulate economic recovery as well as to help people get into the job market. Apart from the youth, those who were previously employed and currently without work are also within the programme’s target groups.

Thulas Nxesi – Minister of Employment and Labour – said, “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.”

Darul Ihsan Media Desk