The Speaker of Council in the City of Johannesburg, Cllr Colleen Makhubele, held a Youth Summit last week at the Metro Centre in Braamfontein as part of celebrating Youth Month. The summit on Friday, 23 June 2023, was over-subscribed as the room was filled to capacity as the youth of Johannesburg listened, engaged and enquired about job opportunities, learnerships and internships from the city and its stakeholders. Cllr Makhubele was joined by the Member of Mayoral Committee for Community Development in the City, Cllr Lubabalo Magwentshu, who said Joburg needs to do something about youth unemployment.
“We cannot afford to see our youth idling at home and getting into drugs. Without involving the youth in the economy of the city, the city would not go anywhere. The platform created today is for all of us to engage and come up with a solution for youth employment,” Cllr Magwentshu said.
In her keynote address, Cllr Makhubele said: “Today as young people, we must find a course that is greater than us to fight for, that is greater than our immediate needs.
We must embark on a course that will bring honour to others.
“Your life must make something more than getting a job. Something deeper that you can offer to this generation, than coming to a summit to ask for a job. The struggle for the young today should be for social betterment for their lives, next generation,” concluded Cllr Makhubele.
The summit saw a lot of corporates offering learnerships, bursaries and jobs to the youth.
Nontobeko Buthelezi from Transnet said: “We will be soon advertising our bursaries for those youth who are interested in property market. We need youth to own properties in South Africa. We always absorb those who do well in their studies on our bursaries database.”
Some sponsors like Shosholoza Finance made a commitment to employ 10 young people who were ready to start at the end of the summit.
Old Mutual’s Mathapelo Sipamla spoke about offering of bursaries to students on accountancy which are open currently for applications. “We also give entrepreneurs businesses to run, in sales and distribution.”
Westbury-based People Against Poverty and Unemployment urged the youth to volunteer in the organisation to learn computer and life skills, digital coding, project management and others.
People with disabilities were also advised to visit clinics to get doctors’ letters as proof to get learnerships for people with disabilities.
“Many companies are looking for people with disabilities to employ,” said Andiswa Gebashe, a deaf activist.
Cllr Makhubele thanked the youth for heeded to the call, students from universities of Witwatersrand and Johannesburg who volunteered to assist with ushering during the event and all the stakeholders who made the day a success.
Written by Thembelihle Radebe
26/06/2023