South Africa: Entrepreneurship an Essential Catalyst for Job Creation – Deputy Minister Godlimpi

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The Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Mr Zuko Godlimpi says enterprise development has to be a central part of the employment agenda in South Africa.

He insists that his department wants to ensure the development of enterprises that can progressively improve their productive capacity, participate in value chains, enter new markets, become sustainable competitors and create jobs.

He was speaking at the launch the of the R1 billion fund of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and National Empowerment Fund in Fourways, Johannesburg.  This fund is made up of contributions of R500 million from each agency and is aimed at directly stimulating enterprise growth to create 30 000 jobs.

The UIF is an agency of the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL), and the NEF, an agency of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic)

Godlimpi said the scale of unemployment in the country requires greater coordination between institutions responsible for employment, skills development, enterprise finance, industrial development and economic infrastructure.

“This fund has been structured to connect enterprise support directly with employment outcomes. It combines financial support with business development, skills development, mentorship, technical assistance and other interventions intended to strengthen enterprises and improve their ability to sustain employment. This is particularly relevant to young people. Sustainable youth employment cannot rely only on placing young people into existing vacancies. South Africa must also expand the number of enterprises capable of creating those opportunities,” he said.

He added that this partnership provides an opportunity to demonstrate that institutions with different mandates can combine their resources and capabilities around a shared objective.

“The UIF has a labour activation and employment mandate while the NEF brings enterprise-finance capability. the dtic and its wider family of institutions have industrial development, investment, trade and enterprise-development instruments. Other departments and entities hold complementary resources relating to skills, infrastructure and sector development.

This is also why the matching and leveraging approach being taken through the programme is important,” he emphasised.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, South Africa.

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