Micro and informal business organisation the South African Informal Traders Alliance (Saita) is seeking to partner with the JSE Top 100 companies to help it create one-million jobs.

“Our country’s unemployment rate is currently at 46.6%, and a staggering 66.5% among the youth. There are far too many people without jobs and we have to do something to arrest this urgently, otherwise we are all in trouble.

"We know that the micro and informal business sector is a foundational incubator for jobs and entrepreneurship, and that it is far easier to gain entry into this sector,” says Saita communications manager Louise Silver.

The micro and informal business sector currently contributes a third of all jobs in South Africa, Saita notes.

It says that it is specifically looking for corporates to support its members with general marketing, including the development and implementation of a marketing strategy, design expertise, digital and traditional advertising and media buying capabilities.

“While this may seem like a small ask from corporate South Africa, and specifically the JSE’s Top 100 companies, securing this support for our jobs campaign, called Project204, will have a profound and deeply meaningful impact on our ability to jointly create one-million micro and informal sector jobs for our country,” Silver asserts.

If successful, it will be the first time that corporates that make up the JSE Top 100 and micro and informal businesses collaborate to address the country’s biggest challenge, Saita states.

“People who run informal or micro businesses are inherently motivated to succeed. They are hard working self-starters who, with the appropriate training, skills development and business environment, can play a larger, more valuable role in the economy. When they succeed, they create jobs and ease the burden on the State, especially where it concerns grants.

"It is up to us, as formal and informal, big and micro [businesses], to partner in the interest of all of our futures,” emphasises Silver.