ActionSA has once again slammed Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s jobs programme.
This week, Lesufi said the “Nasi Ispani” Provincial Government programme received a staggering 1.2 million applications for the advertised 8 000 jobs available.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said this indicated that the programme was an election gimmick aimed at ensuring the ANC wins next year’s elections.
Mashaba said this programme would not yield any gainful employment for the many young people looking for jobs.
Last week, ActionSA Gauteng provincial chairperson Funzi Ngobeni announced, during a media briefing, the launch of legal steps that the party was seeking to take in a bid to stop Lesufi from using the provincial government’s Nasi iSpani employment programme to employ ANC volunteers.
The party said it would be undertaking a legal process in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
“According to legislation, the provincial government must respond within 30 days, failing which ActionSA will lodge a PAIA appeal,” Ngobeni said.
“This latest development adds impetus to ActionSA’s comprehensive legal process to expose this farcical scheme and prevent the abuse of unemployed youth as part of the ANC’s 2024 election campaign,” Mashaba said.
The party says Lesufi’s programme is a “misguided scheme” aimed at positioning the ANC as caring organisation to young people.
“Lesufi launched the misguided scheme to great fanfare and the promise of multiple rounds of recruitment, creating the false impression that Gauteng was in a position to address the chronic youth employment we face. This lie has since been exposed for what it was – an electioneering gimmick with no hope of having a real-work impact.
“Anyone with an understanding of economics and job creation knows that schemes like ‘Nasi Ispani’ cannot succeed in addressing unemployment because they fail to generate economic activity, while doing nothing to address the binding constraints to job creation in South Africa,” Mashaba added.
Last month, at the start of youth month, Lesufi launched this programme, which seeks to attract 8 000 young people to job opportunities across the province.
At the time, Lesufi said the jobs advertised through the campaign were meant to help deal with load shedding, crime and the state of the economy post-Covid-19.
The project kicked off on June 16, with at least 32 pop-up sites set up across the province to help applicants access these opportunities easier.
Speaking to The Star provincial spokesperson Vuyo Mhaga said government would not sit by while young people were unemployed.
“We simply cannot ignore the cries of our communities, which is why we have embarked on a legal process for the Gauteng provincial government to release the employment documents of all those who were hired under the Nasi iSpani programme,” Mhaga said.