South Africa: The Minister of Employment and Labour addressed more than 2 000 youth on 27th May 2022 at Chris Hani Sports Complex in Orange Farm, South of Johannesburg.
The theme of the week-long event is ‘Sustainably Transforming the lives of Township Youth’ the event was organised by Empowaworx with the view to widening the variety of offerings to the youth of Orange Farm.
The main purpose of the event was to expose the youth of Orange Farm to networking, learning, skills development, different industries, career guidance, motivation and entrepreneurship opportunities.
“Empowaworx has analysed the real needs of young people in Orange Farm, developed a programme, marketed it to stakeholders and brought together a wide variety of offerings to combat ‘the triple challenge of inequality, poverty and unemployment under the theme: ‘Inspire, Connect and Transform Young People”. The Minister said.
[Read] The Minister of Employment and Labour addresses more than 2000 youth in Orange farm settlement. https://t.co/wjLkgPxb4R pic.twitter.com/eKqpzHr6dG
— Department of Employment and Labour (@deptoflabour) May 28, 2022
The Minister further said that the government support and appreciates the work that companies like Empowaworx and other partners do, especially on programs that are designed to assist young unemployed youth. “We are coming out of a very difficult period of Covid-19, where the economy was already sluggish, and we experienced record high job losses. We are now rebuilding the economy through the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery plan.
This EmpowaYouth Transformation Week is contributing directly to those efforts – facilitating information and job and training opportunities and mapping out career pathways”, The Minister said.
Orange Farm is widely regarded as one of South Africa’s largest semi-rural, undeveloped informal settlements that are rapidly growing. Approximately 70% of the population live below the poverty line, living on less than R14.00 per day, placing them at risk of being severely food insecurity.
This staggering number doesn’t come as a surprise in South Africa as most of the youth mostly live with little hope, and yet they are filled with potential. South Africa is currently faced with an unemployment rate amongst youth who make up 35,7% of the population; of that percentage, 8,5 million (41,7%) youth are NOT IN EMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION OR TRAINING (NEET).
The future of South Africa is in the hands of the youth and many of whom are living with little trust in the system. However, these kinds of initiatives are aimed at equipping them with any form of opportunities that may arise in and around Gauteng and in the rest of the country.
