Mthokozisi Nxumalo MP
IFP Youth Brigade Chairperson
The IFP Youth Brigade (IFYB) notes with very serious concern the skyrocketing youth unemployment figures released today by StatsSA in the latest quarterly labour force survey.
It is high time that government acknowledges that youth unemployment in our country is a crisis. According to StatsSA almost 4 in every 10 young people in the labour force did not have a job.
Furthermore, Just under 30% of the youth have jobs and about half of them (48,8%) participate in the labour market.
If we are to be serious in growing our economy, rolling out skills and improving our education and the access and implementation of the fourth industrial revolution, we must ensure that all youth find dignified employment.
We can no longer afford more summits diagnosing the same issues year on year.
Action is required now, and action in times of crisis requires strong and bold leadership which will see the rapid expansion of governments programmes and interventions to curb the rise in youth unemployment.
The real faces behind unemployment by far is the hardest reality we as a nation face especially when the majority of our population is below the age of 15-years.
We need to address the scourge of unemployment faced by youth in rural communities as well as in the urban nodes and big cities in our country.
As Chairperson of the IFPYB and a Member of Parliament, I will urgently request the tabling of a debate in the National Assembly on Youth Unemployment in terms of Section 130 of the National Assembly Rules, by writing to the Honourable Speaker, Thandi Modise MP.
This debate will allow for a collaboration of ideas in the National Assembly on how to fast-track the creation of jobs in all sectors to ensure that we save our economy and the lives of our young people.
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Contact:
Mthokozisi Nxumalo MP
IFP Youth Brigade Chairperson
072 819 5153
