Deputy President Ramaphosa says youth employment a global challenge

Loyiso Langeni
08 September 2014

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa today addressed the conference on Accelerating Inclusive Youth Employment which is taking place in Stellenbosch. 

 

The Deputy President could not attend the conference but sent in a pre-recorded message.

 

He said youth employment is a global challenge and in South Africa formal youth unemployment rate stands at 36 percent. 

"We nee to break the cycle of exclusion and inequality, we need to harness the potential and unearth the talent of young people.

Though the situation may appear difficult we can draw encouragement from the many young South African, who are out there, demonstrating a lot of initiative who are showing that they are willing to work hard and who have a determination to overcome the circumstances into which many of them were born," Ramaphosa said.

 

Meanwhile Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said social mobility constraints, a shortage of suitable skills, poverty and inequality are among the factors that contribute to unemployment. 

He added that the youth need to break the inter-generational cycle of poverty.

“South Africa’s National Development Plan has put forward various interventions to address this problem. The plan focuses our efforts on ensuring that we grow our economy and but create jobs and provide young people with real productive opportunities. We also want to promote entrepreneurship amongst young people because young people are inherently entrepreneurial and we need to unlock that talent that resides in them.” Ramaphosa said.