Drawing on a Cuban skills development model first implemented by the island State in 1964, the Department of Human Settlements (DHS) has, in partnership with the National Youth Development Agency, the National Home Builders Registration Council and the Estate Agency Affairs Board, outlined plans for the establishment of a National Human Settlements Youth Brigade in the domestic built-environment industries.

The ambitious programme would seek to create organised teams of youth who would be trained in the construction and engineering sectors, driving the upskilling of the country’s unemployed youth while advancing the DHS’ housing delivery target of 1.5-million houses by 2019.

Some 5% – or around R3-billion – of the national DHS budget would be allocated to the youth development programme, while the provincial departments were expected to contribute an additional 5% of their respective budgets.

The department would further ringfence up to 50 “catalytic” housing projects in each province for inclusion in the programme and would provide each participant with a monthly stipend, Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu told the National Human Settlements Youth Summit in Midrand on Monday.

The initiative, which was still in its infancy, would complement an assortment of other policy interventions intended to support the youth, such as the Youth Wage Subsidy, and was expected to enjoy buy-in by several of the country’s construction firms, leveraging off commitments made by majors during the recent signing of the Social Contract for the Development of Sustainable Human Settlements.

“All 60 of the [private-sector] contract partners are party to this brigade programme and have committed to prioritising the employment of the youth in their workforce, jointly providing employment and housing. It’s a binding contract.

“We’ve already implemented a pilot project with Basil Read and we expect other players to do the same thing,” she noted.

Sisulu, meanwhile, described the initiative as a manifestation of government’s commitment to prioritising youth employment in the human settlements environment and creating a sustainable pool of skills in the construction and related sectors.

It remained aligned with government’s objective of seeking a strategic balance between providing welfare interventions for the previously disadvantaged and avoiding a progression to a welfare State model. 

“The programme cuts across political affinities and includes all young people, irrespective of gender and geographic location. Any young person that wants to craft a career for themself in the construction sector qualifies to become a part of the brigade, which doesn’t only seek to create opportunities but aims to create ambitious, hard-working people.

“The youth must, however, remember, that our responsibility as government is to empower you, educate you and provide opportunities. We would rather teach you to fish and give you a fishing rod than give you a fish,” she said at the summit.

Sisulu added that the crop of brigade participants would boost the country’s dwindling tax base and, in turn, support other social security interventions.

“For example, we want a person that enters the programme as a cement mixer to become an engineering graduate before practicing as an engineer and then owning their own company.

“We are also currently working on a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Higher Education to professionalise [entry-level] positions in the construction sector,” she pointed out.

The Minister added that she was “amenable” to the possible introduction of legislation to ensure municipal buy-in into the programme.

Deputy Minister in the Presidency Buti Manamela added at the summit that youth brigades would be required to organise themselves in groups with clear structures and programmes to support the social and economic transformation of poor communities, including in the roll-out of human settlements.

“Young people must be drivers and agents of change and ensure that they are not passive recipients of government services. You must be active and involved in your communities and not be part of those who destroy them [and] redirect energies to build and protect communities. As government, we believe that you, more than ever before, are change-makers,” he asserted.

Sisulu would officially launch the National Human Settlements Youth Brigade at construction major Basil Read’s Savanna City integrated housing development, south of Johannesburg, on Tuesday.