Imagine having to choose between buying food for your child and spending money on finding a job. Job hunting is costly, especially when you’re unemployed and money is tight; latest research confirms that job-seeking can cost up to R1 400 per month. Transport is the biggest expense. We live in a country where one in five people have limited access to food. And they can’t afford to look for jobs. At the same time, we know that four in ten young people between the ages of 15 and 34 are not in education, employment or training.
This is the difficult context in which Minister Enoch Godongwana will deliver his annual budget on Wednesday. South Africa is stuck in a low-growth trap, the available jobs are too far from where many unemployed people live and too few to meet demand. But existing short-term work opportunities like those created by the Social Employment Fund (SEF) and the Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES), in general, are putting money directly in people’s pockets enabling them to spend in local economies. These programmes are giving young people their much-needed first work experience. Unlike trickle-down economics, these opportunities provide a trickle up strategy that is truly redistributive. But to be a sustainable programme, Minister Godongwana must ensure there is adequate funding for the SEF and other PES programmes for another five years.
An opportunity to work and learn new skills
The Social Employment Fund leverages existing civil society infrastructure to maximise value for communities. Since its inception in 2020, the fund has worked with over 1 000 community-based organisations providing on-the-job training and stipends, paid at National Minimum Wage to over 100 000 participants, the majority of which are young people. One of the programme’s beneficiaries is a young woman named Francina Muhlanga who began working with Organisation Hands-On, a strategic partner of development facilitation agency Seriti Institute, as a nutrition ambassador. As part of the programme, which runs for four hours a day, five days a week, she learnt new soft skills, such as communication and team management, and agricultural skills like growing her own vegetables, and understanding different soil types.
Trickle up strategy
Short-term work opportunities like these can boost the national economy, beginning with local economies in the very communities in which these programmes operate. Young people didn’t have to spend money on transport to get to work as most opportunities are in communities where the participants live. For example, Francina’s monthly stipend contributed to her household income and paid her son’s school fees. Using her new skills and the social networks she built during her time as a nutrition ambassador, Francina started her own homestead garden growing cabbage, spinach and beetroot. She could maintain a nutritious diet and had the opportunity to make extra money by selling the produce to her neighbours. Francina’s story is not isolated. Seriti Institute crunched the numbers: 6 509 vegetable units were harvested in December 2023 providing sustenance to 8 662 people, particularly in vulnerable households. This boosted their resilience to food insecurity.
This is not anecdotal: new research shows that such short-term work opportunities go a long way towards increasing consumer purchasing power. The economic impact lasts well after the programmes have ended.
Make good programmes sustainable
Leveraging public employment to reduce youth unemployment aligns with our government’s vision. To date, the PES has shown us the potential of public employment programmes to simultaneously tackle poverty, boost community development and create work opportunities. We’ve seen this happening in 14 sectors countrywide in schools, ECD centres and areas categorised as ‘economic deserts’.
While existing solutions like PES can be launch pads for innovation, it’s crucial to focus on outcomes to secure the long-term sustainability of these programmes and improve the livelihoods of its participants. South Africa has the tools, programmes and civil society infrastructure that can empower young people to take charge of their futures. But for this to happen, public employment must be sufficiently funded in the medium term, allowing those who deliver the programme to focus their energies on impact and measurable outcomes, instead of the uncertainties of the programmes’ future.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Juanita Pardesi is the Chief Executive Officer at Seriti Institute, a development facilitation agency and a strategic partner of the Social Employment Fund. Kristal Duncan-Williams is the Project Lead at Youth Capital, a campaign advocating for youth-centred and evidence-based solutions to youth unemployment.
