Yesterday, Gauteng Premier David Makhura, together with Social Development MEC Morakane Mosupyoe, held an engagement with resilient young people who have benefitted from government programmes and now run their own successful businesses.
The engagement is part of the build-up activities towards the provincial commemoration of youth month. This year’s youth month is themed as ‘Promoting sustainable livelihoods and resilience of young people for a better tomorrow.’
The dialogue has afforded ten (10) young people who participated in the Gauteng Department of Social Development youth development programmes and have established successful youth programmes or businesses that remained resilient in the era of covid-19 pandemic an opportunity to share their journey.
In his remarks, Premier Makhura commended young people that participated in the department’s youth development programmes for their resilience.
He said the Welfare to Work (W2W) is one of the programmes run by the department that are close to his heart because it allows young people with the right attitude to be able to unleash their full potential and drive their own destiny.
“Listening to all these young people’s testimonies and how they have progressed gives us courage that our programmes indeed make a difference to the youth of our province, and I must commend the department’s excellent work”, said the premier.
The Premier also highlighted that all the young people who have gone through the youth development programme and are successfully running their own businesses must be linked with the Department of Economic Development for further assistance.
The MEC for Social Development Morakane Mosupyoe reaffirmed the government’s commitment to continue assisting and developing young people who contribute to the creation of job opportunities and up-skilling of their peers.
The MEC said through social partnerships and youth-focused programmes; the department will continue to unlock the full potential of young people.
“As Gauteng Social Development, we made a commitment to intensify the implementation of the Gauteng Anti-Poverty Strategy and resolved to ramp up our War on Poverty interventions, with emphasis on increased access, expansion, and introduction of additional innovative programmes in the areas of skills development, entrepreneurship development, and job placement, targeting, women and youth”, she said.
Mosupyoe said the department is committed to ensuring that young people are employable and their socio-economic conditions are transformed. She further highlighted that the department’s investment in youth programmes generates opportunities for them to embrace and fulfil their obligations and aspirations in a developmental society. She said the Welfare-to-Work programme (W2W) is an initiative by the department that ultimately seeks to reduce the dependency of young people on the welfare system.
“We do this by placing beneficiaries of various types of grants through a skills training programme that encompasses experiential work placements, artisans’ skills training, as well as academic studying. We will continue to utilize the W2W as a transition for youth, persons with disabilities, women, and their dependents”, she added.
“We thank the Gauteng Government for its unwavering support for the dreams of young people, and I am really excited to be one of your beneficiaries” those were the words of one of the Beauty Hub Graduates, Philisile Sibiya, who runs her own salon in the Soweto.
