INTRODUCTION

1. South African Youth CouncilPresentation to Parliament Portfolio Committee on Labour07 June 2006

2. INTRODUCTION • 1992 formation of the National Youth Development Forum as the united platform and the voice for the youth • 1995 the collapse of the National Youth Development Forum • Reasons for the collapse, Institutional capacity problems, vague mandate, No clear programmes ect. • 1996 National Steering Committee was formed at NEDLAC to facilitate the process towards institutionalisation of youth voice in policy process. • 1997 South African Youth Council was formed

3. SOUTH AFRICAN YOUTH COUNCIL South African Youth Council (SAYC) is a voluntary civil society youth organisation that represents the interests and aspirations of various youth organisations affiliated to it. It caters for a broad range of youth organisations from all walks of life and it’s categories of representation includes, but not limited to, political, youth, students, religious, cultural, sporting and voluntary youth orgaisations. SAYC derives it’s existence as a common law organisation that has been incorporated not for gain and it is therefore recognised in law in terms of the Non-profit Organisations Act No. 71 of 1997 in that it is a separate entity from the members which constitute it, that it has a continuous existence, and that it has been incorporated not for gain. SAYC as a civil society organistaion and a non-governmental youth organisation remains the largest youth representatives in terms of its affiliates and the wide spectrum of youth these affiliates represents. Our engagement with SAYC is therefore highly critical. Chief amongst its function is to mobilise youth organisations to ensure their participation in building and entrenching democracy in South Africa. Below find a breakdown structure of who is SAYC:

4. Political Youth Formulations Volunteer Youth Orgs Student Formulations Issue Based Religious Youth Disabled Youth South African Youth Council Economic Empowerment Youth Rural Youth Youth Workers Youth Clubs Service Providers Arts & Cultural Youth Youth Sport

5. YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT • INTERNATIONAL TRENDS • 160 Million of People in the World are Unemployed Today, • 40% of those without proper jobs are young people, • Youth in employment are either lowest paid, contract casuals without protection or self employed without business, • In Developing Countries a rising number of young people work in the informal economy where they earn lower wages and are often subjected to poor or even exploitative working conditions, • In both Developed and developing countries, significant portions of the population live below defined poverty lines, • Youth work has become what is known as the intermediary zone between the formal and the informal economy characterized by casualisation of Labour

6. YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT • SOUTH AFRICAN SITUATION • Approximately 40% 0f SA pop. Is Youth • The average official unemployment rate between March 2004 – March 2005 stood between 27,9% and 26,5% (Stats SA 2005) The figure excludes discouraged workers, • The unemployment rate was 40,5% including the discouraged workers, the figure remained unchanged for the entire year • The absorption rate of the unemployed is low, resulting in continuous poverty and inequality, • Whiles unemployment has risen, wages have declined • In 2004, 39% of the population earned under R 1000 a month, the same figure as ten years ago, • The purchasing power of R 1000 fell by well over half, • Increased pressure on disposal incomes of the poor from expenses such as school fees, transportation costs, this effectively diminished the potential for capital accumulation and savings, • This has Entrenched earning patterns and income disparities

7. YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT • SOUTH AFRICAN SITUATION • While growth has destabilized it has not seen the creation of sustainable formal sector jobs to decimate the current high levels of unemployment and poverty • Instead we have seen large scale of job-losses and casualisation in other sectors, • Critical to job creation is to establish the relationship between the growth strategy and broader human development, • Over 70% of workers in the informal economy report a monthly income below R 1000 • About 50% of those working in the informal economy report an income below R500 (HSRC Review 2003)

8. YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT • YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT • Youth between the ages of 15 – 24 forms 33% of the working age, they only constitute 10% of the employed (Labour Force Survey September 2002) • The LBF data Survey shows that youth are about 60% of the working age population, they form 70% of all the unemployed in the society • Of the 8 million unemployed in the South African Labour Market 5,5 million is between the ages of 15-34 • The figures suggests that the current levels of economic growth are not high enough to can absorb the large number of new job seekers entering the labour market every year

9. YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT • YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT • Youth challenges include rural-urban poverty, unemployment, rapid urbanisation etc. • Youth need innovation & ongoing reflection • We call on joint planning with all stakeholders • Most researches on employment patterns have been urban bias than rural bias. • Youth unemployment has much more profound effect on young women than young men.

10. YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT • CAUSES OF YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT • Employers feel they are too young, too inexperienced and physically and socially too immature • Some analysts feel that the problem lies in youth having the wrong attitudes – they prefer urban to rural living, they prefer white-collar to blue-collar work, they lack discipline, and so on. • Other see the problem as an inappropriate education that is too academically-inclined, which encourages students to aspire to white-collar jobs, and which does not impact useful and technical skills.

11. YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT • INTERVENTIONS • Human Resource Development through learnerships and other initiatives (How sustainable are the learnerships, many young people do not find employment after training instead they return to unemployment) • SETA’s are not having enough impact on job creation • Expanded Public Works Programme (Do not create sustainable income, create temporary jobs) • National Youth Service Programme (Ho many sustainable jobs has it created)

12. YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT • RECOMMENDATIONS • Create Worker cooperatives to take part in and manage EPWP Labour Intensive Construction Projects • Conduct impact assessment/analysis on learnerships over the past five years, • Increased access to higher education • Increase the social security net, • Government should introduce incentive schemes for people who return to rural areas for service delivery, particularly infrastructure development • Government should accelerate land restitution and redistribution so that land can be available for youth to can exercise and practice agricultural scheme projects

13. YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT • RECOMMENDATIONS • Because of historical problems with access and quality of education, literacy and numeracy must be regarded as important parts of training. • Promoting self-employment through community and youth enterprises • Mobile training units for rural areas (YMCA Mobile Training unit Programme in Fiji) • Ensure that employment schemes do not expose young women to low wage, super exploitative employment aimed at competition in overseas markets

14. YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT • RECOMMENDATIONS • Ensure that in all employment schemes young women are not employed specifically because they can be paid extremely low rates and for most of these young women employment last for only few years while they are young and unmarried • Ensure that Labour regime is enforceable in all the proposed employment schemes

15. YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT • CONCLUSION • Youth in particular need expanding economy as they are largely reliant on the creation of new job opportunities. THANK YOU Tel: 011 403 6392 Fax: 011 403 8278 bmokgothu@nwpg.gov.zasiphosayc@hotmail.com