Cape Town - In a bid to improve support to young people, the Presidency is considering making departments report regularly to Cabinet on what they are doing to promote initiatives for youth in training, job creation and entrepreneurship development.
Speaking during the Presidency's Budget Vote, which was presented in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Deputy Minister in the Presidency Obed Bapela, said most of the more than 25 national government departments' Youth Units did not have internship and learnership programmes or job creation initiatives and entrepreneurship development initiatives aimed at young people.
Bapela intended to ask the Department of Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation, in the Presidency, to develop measuring tools and monitoring mechanisms to allow the government to assess the impact of programmes geared towards young people, with regular reports to Cabinet.
He said he would be meeting with departments in November again to assist officials building the aims of the National Youth Policy into their plans and take inputs from the National Planning Commission.
Bapela said young people in South Africa constituted the majority of the unemployed, with no less that 70% remaining job seekers.
Commending officials at the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), Bapela said since it was set up three years ago, the NYDA had worked to build a world class youth development agency that adhered to good corporate governance principles.
"As a result, the NYDA has received an unqualified audit report in two consecutive years by the Auditor General, something that other departments are still struggling to achieve," he said.
He said in the agency's three-year existence, its delivery record had been improving significantly, leading to the organisation achieving 42 out of the 49 key performance indicators in 2010/11.
The agency, which has a national footprint in all nine provinces and 281 municipalities, has supported over 5 000 young entrepreneurs with business development consultancy services vouchers, provided 49 341 young people with entrepreneurship training over the past two financial years and has disbursed over R60.4 million in loans to young entrepreneurs.
The Ithubalentsha Micro Enterprise Programme, which the agency launched in February, will help prepare entrepreneurs with the necessary skills to run a business.
Meanwhile, Bapela said the agency's Education and Skills Development Programme had enrolled 2 039 learners on the Matric rewrite project, while the agency had also provided career guidance and job preparedness training to over 446 588 and 17 258 young people respectively, he said.
Added to this, the National Youth Service Programme (NYS) had enrolled over 80 000 young people to serve their communities.
This financial year, he said the agency would implement eight key programmes and two special programmes aimed at improving economic participation of the youth.
These programmes were expected to give 20 000 young entrepreneurs technical and business support, while R30 million in funding to young entrepreneurs would help to create 800 jobs.
The agency would also ensure that funds were raised with other partners geared towards supporting the implementation of NYDA activities, with R50 million expected to be raised through National Youth Fund.
"A question should no longer arise on the achievements of NYDA, as it has delivered on its mandate, continues to do so, but due to lack of adequate resources, that they were unable to reach a bigger portion of our youth population," he said.
Before the Youth Commission and Umsobomvu Youth Fund merged to form the NYDA, the two agencies were allocated a combined budget from national fiscus of R1.1 billion per financial year.
However, Bapela said when the two were merged, the funding allocation was reduced, with the NYDA allocated R386 million in 2010/11 year.
"We are not here asking that all funds towards young people should be given to NYDA as we are cognisant that other investments are on education, skills development as in Basic Education and Higher Education and Training," he said.
It was for this reason that the government departments' Youth Units had to play a more active role in helping to develop the youth.
Bapela said South Africa should learn from Namibia, which he visited recently. That country used youth camps to foster national building, social cohesion, patriotism and a spirit of volunteerism.
Importantly, the camps were also used to assess young people's capabilities and offer them skills training, including professional, creative and critical skills.
Bapela said with the focus of government on infrastructure, the theme for this year's Youth Month celebrations is "Together we can do more to build infrastructure and fight youth unemployment, poverty and inequality".
He said youth at Tuesday's Youth Month launch had raised the issue of the youth wage subsidy and had requested the Presidency to sponsor a youth consultative summit by the end of the July school holidays, under the auspices of the umbrella body, South African Youth Council (SAYC), to discuss their different views on the issue.
"We also call upon the youth, from all racial groups... to ... give a thought and reflect during Youth Month and ask the question, 'What am I doing for my country?'" he said.
Turning to Brand South Africa, Bapela said the country' success in mobilising the necessary resources, investment and partners was also dependent upon the national posture and image it projected.
He said over the past year, Brand SA had focused on positioning and profiling South Africa as an attractive business destination as well as marketing the country to South Africans to build social cohesion and garner support for the nation branding project.
"Brand SA's Vision is for South Africa to be acknowledged as a top 20 nation brand and a top 30 nation by 2020 in terms of brand reputation and global competitiveness respectively."
Brand SA's domestic strategic focus is to mobilise active citizenry through its innovative "Play Your Part" campaign.
The campaign is aimed at engaging and motivating all South Africans to contribute towards positive social change in the country.
Brand SA's international strategic focus is to positively influence and shape perceptions about South Africa as a key business destination and play a leadership role amongst target audiences.
