Page 53 - Provincial Treasury Estimates.pdf

Estimates of Provincial Revenue and Expenditure (EPRE) -2023/24 Financial Year
x Thirty one thousand one hundred and three (31 103) youth benefitted from the Presidential Youth
Employment Initiative;

x EPWP Programme of 43 914 jobs created benefitted young people (36 038 and 7 876) Provincial
Government and Local Government, respectively;

x More than 1,835 Interns contracted and 740 learnerships across provincial departments.

Moving forward, for 2023/24, the EPWP plans to create a total of 97 764 jobs at both provincial and local

government level, whilst the Accelerated Professional and Trade Competency Development (APTCoD) and
the National Youth Services (NYS) plan to enroll 1060 and 150 youths, respectively.

Financial support to Youth Owned SMMEs through various funds, e.g., LRED, Isiqalo Youth Fund, needs
to, however, be streamlined. Furthermore, there remains a need for a focused youth development strategy
that aims to create a link between Job Creation and youth unemployment.

For 2023/24 the Isqalo Youth fund will be allocated R18.542 million to provide financial and non-financial

support to youth owned enterprises.

Job creation through the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative

The sixth administration of national government introduced the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative

Programme (PYEI), which was implemented as the Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI) across
all nine provinces. This initiative by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has succeeded in the
reduction of youth unemployment in the country since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The

programme appoints youth in various positions such as Education Assistants (EAs) and General Service
Assistants (GSAs) to assist in the daily running and teaching needs within the school environment.

The first phase of the programme was rolled out in 2020/21 with a budget allocation of R1.190 billion, where
57 253 work opportunities were created (inclusive of 17 276 males and 39 995 females). The second phase
was rolled out in 2021/22 with a budget allocation of R841.541 million – it created 39 289 work opportunities

(17 615 males and 21 671 females). The third phase began in 2022/23 and it had a budget allocation of
R1.006 billion with 36 023 work opportunities created (17 230 males and 19 813 females) and the fourth

phase will be rolled out in the 2023/24 financial year and it has a budget allocation of R1.011 billion and
40 100 work opportunities are planned to be created, consisting of 60% females and 40% males. Since the
past three years of its inception, this programme has successfully created work opportunities for over

1 million youth nationally.

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