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News24 reports that Deputy President David Mabuza told MPs last week that government's efforts at reducing the public service wage bill would make it challenging for the state to absorb large numbers of young South Africans who were enrolled in the government’s Youth Employment Stimulus (YES) and other programmes.
In the same week, Statistics SA announced that unemployment had climbed to a record high of 34.4% in the second quarter of 2021. Concurrently, sovereign credit rating agencies and other international observers warned that the ballooning of the public service wage bill was a significant fiscal threat to the SA economy. YES has 11 programmes administered by different government departments. "We have recognised that the Covid-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on our ability to create jobs, particularly the youth. Since the advent of the pandemic, the portion of the youth that comprises the work force has fallen significantly," said Mabuza. He went on to indicate that government needed to strike a balance between keeping wages in check by stabilising the public service wage bill and improving the standard of service delivery where it was being hampered. "We need to reprioritise and rework our operational design so that we employ more people where service delivery is not up to scratch… As much as we recognise that, we cannot absorb all of the young people that are out there,” Mabuza stated.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khulekani Magubane at News24
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