President Ramaphosa at the June 16 national commemoration event held in Eastern Cape. Picture: Kopano Tlape/GCIS
Cape Town - President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on young people to rally together as they battle the current challenges.
Ramaphosa said the youth remain affected by a number of challenges including poverty, unemployment and inequality.
He said the country’s economic woes have been worsened by Covid-19, the July unrest and the floods in KwaZulu-Natal.
This had an impact on the economy; yet many businesses were beginning to recover.
Ramaphosa, who was addressing those marking Youth Day in the Eastern Cape on Thursday, said efforts were being made to ramp up the economy.
However, he said more young people needed to get into the labour market.
“The fact that millions of young people are not in employment, education or training is the greatest challenge facing our country today. As we rebuild from the pandemic, we therefore remain focused on growing our economy and creating jobs. We remain focused on far-reaching economic reforms and creating conditions for the expansion of businesses throughout the country,” said Ramaphosa.
He added that they wanted to remove more bottlenecks and cut the red-tape to make it easier for investors to come into the country.
Ramaphosa also said they have set up a number of employment programmes to hire young people. This includes the teacher assistant programme where thousands of young people are employed.
This and many other programmes will help assist in getting the youth into different sectors.
Ramaphosa also spoke out against gender-based violence and bullying in schools and said the youth should fight against GBV and bullying.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Current Affairs