Dear Residents
In South Africa, June is regarded as Youth Month. It is for this reason that as the municipality we intend to highlight the work we are doing to alleviate youth unemployment.
Makana Municipality and the Department of Labour have joined hands in offering a learnership programme to the unemployed youth of Makana through Khunjulwa Marketing Services (KMS).
KMS is the organisation appointed to implement learnership programmes by Walter Sisulu University in partnership with the Department of Labour for 2019. About 250 youth will be receiving training on four different fields, namely, Agriculture, New Venture Creation, Hot Water Installation and General Technical Practice.
This programme will be running for 12 months, of which four months will be theory and learners will be expected to attend classes for five days a week. The rest of the eight months will be practical: KMS will try to find placements for the learners where they will get hands-on experience, along with mentoring and monitoring. At the end of the programme, learners will be assessed by a moderator and will receive an accredited qualification.
This initiative is as a result of the efforts of Ward 2 Councillor Ramie Xonxa.
In his application for garden equipment for his Food Security committee to the office of then Agriculture MEC Xolile Nqatha, he attached a list of people with gardens around his ward and other wards in Makhanda. It is through this list that the office of the MEC realised there was a need for a learnership programme in plant and animal production (Agriculture).
With assistance from the Department of Labour, the programme was extended to include the other three programmes mentioned above. The programme was also extended across the municipality, as there is a high rate of unemployment among the youth. These learners will receive a stipend of R2000 per month.
As the municipality, we are trying our best to encourage our youth to be capacitated with skills so that they can be able to open businesses and earn a sustainable living. In addition, there are 80 young persons who are undertaking a learnership programme in water and sanitation. Forty will start practical work on Monday and another 40 will start their theory on Monday 10 June 2019.
We encourage Makana’s youth to register at the office of the Youth Coordinator, Sicelo Gqeke, and the Depatment of Labour, so that their details are in both databases.
