All about the presidential employment stimulus and how it can help you

The Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES) was launched in response to the financial havoc caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Could it help you?

According to Public Works Minister Patricia de Lille, the focus is on ensuring that the jobs created ‘provide meaningful work experience, so participants become work-ready’. The targets are mainly young people and women, from artists and creatives to cultural- and heritage-sector workers, subsistence farmers, and those involved in rural roads maintenance and environmental initiatives.

South Africa has one of the most unequal societies in the world, and unemployment is the biggest cause of its income inequality, says Dr Kate Philip, PES programme lead. PES is a way of ‘supporting South Africa on a trajectory of more inclusive growth’, she says.

PHASE 2
Launched in October 2021, this sees a further allocation of R11 billion from the National Treasury being spent on continuing some Phase 1 initiatives and introducing many new ones. Could some, like these, help you?

• A Presidential Youth Employment Intervention: President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on young people to register for the new SA Youth service network on the SAYouth.Mobi platform (available data-free) to help them find jobs, learn how to prepare for the world of work, or, as the platform puts it, ‘how to start their own hustle’.
• A Social Employment Fund: This focuses on work that achieves the common good for communities, such as community safety, urban agriculture initiatives, and upgrading informal settlements. It is hoped private partners will create 50 000 jobs.
• An Innovation in Public Employment in the Metros programme: This calls on metros to create jobs with social value, such as employing the homeless and training young people with skills to digitise city records, in the hope of making them more employable in the private sector, says Philip.
• An initiative with the Department of Communication and Digital Technology: This is establishing a Broadband Access Fund to support connectivity for 50 000 households, which is critical in employment searches.

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TEXT: GLYNIS HORNING