Only 2.3% of the more than 600 000 unemployed South Africans registered with the government’s employment agency have been placed in full-time jobs.

This emerged from Minister of Labour Mildred Oliphant's reply to a Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary question. Oliphant stated that of the 618 570 unemployed South Africans registered under the Public Employment Service (PES), only 14 634 were successfully placed in full-time employment. DA shadow minister of labour Ian Ollis said this has now become just "another costly but ineffective government intervention that is failing South Africans on a daily basis".

"According to the Department of Labour’s Annual Report 2014/15, the primary function of the PES is 'to register unemployed and under-employed work-seekers, to equip them with employment counselling to access employment, to seek and register opportunities for the absorption of work-seekers, to match them with opportunities and to refer them to employers and other institutions for potential placement and to access unemployment benefits'," said Ollis in a statement on Wednesday.

He said it is alarming that the Department of Labour’s placement target for this year is a "measly" 20 000. "In a country in which 8.4-million South Africans remain trapped in unemployment, this programme has horribly missed the mark, and its impact is negligible," said Ollis.

According to Ollis, many of the 128 labour centres around the country which offer public employment services are "run down, dilapidated and inaccessible to those South Africans which need them most". He will therefore conduct oversight visits to some of the most problematic labour centres across the country. After this, the DA will make concrete proposals to the minister to improve the situation.

"Every South African must be afforded the opportunity to find a job, which brings with it freedom, dignity, independence, and an opportunity to better one’s life," said Ollis.

News24.com