Hon Deputy Chairperson, members of the National Council of Provinces, the Minister of Labour and Employment, the table led by the secretary, Advocate Phindela, allow me to take this opportunity to greet you in the name of the ANC. On Tuesday the select committee had an opportunity to engage with the Minister and the team, particularly with the view to ensure that we get an understanding in terms of the imperatives of a reconfigured department. Gladly so, the entry point from the Minister was that it is important that as a select committee we need to understand the nature of our South African economy. Indeed, the challenges that we
have raised confirm what the Minister has raised when he said our challenges are structural in nature.
It is important to also note that what the Minister raised confirmed what one of our veterans, the former Member of Parliament, Ben Turok, said in terms of the need to make a major review of our microeconomic policy, but also to mention that he was in tandem with what one of the authors, Ntate Makgetla, when he said that the structuralism approach in the intervention of our economy is an imperative, so that we able to ensure to confront the structure of production, distribution, ownership and control, and also mitigate the devastating impact of the spatial structure of our economy which of course worsen the situation of the vulnerables.
I think it is important to also note that as pointed out correctly so, this year we celebrate the 24th anniversary of the enactment and the adoption of the labour Relations Act. It is only correct that because this Labour Relations Act was passed under the stewardship and the presidency of our icon, Rre Mandela, it is only correct, given the fact that this month is the month of Mandela's birthday, we also pay tribute to the sterling work that he has done.
Also in our interaction with the department, as a starting point, the hon Minister made reference as an entry point of the state of the nation address that was delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa, where he was able to reiterate the ANC's priorities reflected in its 2017 54th national conference and also in our election manifesto which correctly put the labour and job creation as an integral pillar of our attempt to deal with the legacy of apartheid colonialism. Critical to that pronouncement by the Minister is that at the centre of our national agenda is the creation of jobs, especially for the young people and rural women.
More so, emphasis was also on inviting us to be able to ensure that we implement the scrapping of experience as a requirement for entry level jobs in the public service because it creates an opportunity for our young people to be able to have access to the job opportunities. It is important to outline the fact that the policy orientation of the vote as outlined by the Deputy Minister and the team reiterated those commitments. At the centre of that, it was repeated by the Minister in this House, Public employment programme which is designed to promote an efficient developmental and integrated use of job opportunities and work experience.
We are going to invite the hon Minister because of the number of population that we have in the province to use our province as a pilot to send a message that indeed, job eradication is possible. The challenges of the labour market, grappling with an ever more complex range of issues requires very specific responses, precisely by virtue of the fact that I reiterated that our problems are structural in nature. These matters are not new and have been raised before by labour, government and business and there is a commitment to respond to directives arising from these forums which is specifically designed to stimulate the economy and create jobs.
The complexity of the shift in occupational groups largely due to ever- increasing mechanisation and displacement of employees across sectors, has led the ANC government to come up with very specific proposals and therefore as a result thereof, we appreciate the effort as outlined by the Deputy Minister in terms of ensuring that we register 700 workseekers on an employment service database, mindful of the fact that the level of employment is very high, but of course also, we take note that work experience and skills acquired through this public employment programme improve a person's employability.
It is important to note that the state of the nation address 2019 put an emphasis on the need to ensure that we diminish unemployment rate, and therefore we want to confront the statistics released by the Statistics SA to ensure that we are able to confront the 27,6% of unemployment. We therefore appreciate the Public Employment Programme which is allocated - as raised by the Minister - R23,3 million to be able to address this scourge but also a further R402,1 million which is designed also as a subprogramme for counselling and placement. We therefore appreciate that the vote allocation will enable an increase in support to workseekers, greater access to labour market, and also an increase in self- service stations.
Moreover, the number of interventions to revive and stimulate growth has been critical with a Youth Employment Summit, various presidential summits, a presidential 2018 stimulus package and investment conferences. These summits are making a difference and therefore it is important that the effort outlined by the Minister is geared towards boosting economic growth, which is critical in job creation. It also deals particularly with unemployment and reducing inequality. The Budget Vote comes at the backdrop of economic contraction and the inability of the job market to absorb high demands of jobseekers. It is important that we appreciate the effort
by the department. As a select committee we will ensure that we hold them accountable so that the Public Employment Services are directly linked to the Outcome 5 of the Medium-Term Strategic Framework. Indeed, our National Development Plan goals, which advocate the development of a skilled and capable workforce to support inclusive growth path must succeed and this vote must assist in this regard.
In conclusion this vote is in line with economic priorities of the country, job creation and reducing inequality and upskilling of our nation. Thank you.