Employment and Labour briefs Parliament

Employment and Labour Deputy Director-General of Public Employment Services, Sam Morotoba told the Joint Portfolio Committees' meeting held in Cape Town today, 3 June 2025.

Morotoba, who presented the Department's stance in the value chain from basic education, through higher education and training into the world of work, said: “Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) remains committed to addressing structural deficiencies in the labour market, including skills development, access to quality education, and enhanced job creation initiatives".

Morotoba highlighted several projects the Department undertook in collaboration with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) as well as the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), among them: Education for Employment (E4E) funded by the National Treasury and the European Union, which facilitate the transition from learning to employment and has taken place in Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, and Northern Cape Provinces. He said during these events, the Department provided career guidance and counselling as well as job shadowing.

The second involvement is the integration of persons with disabilities in the mainstream economy. Morotoba said through consultation with a number of stakeholders, various interventions were developed. “The Employment Equity Act as one of the interventions- requires employment establishments to have Equity Plans to increase the number of Blacks, Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities; as well as Social Security System in the form of the Compensation Fund paying for medical costs, devices, rehabilitation, pensions and bursaries for those who get injured at work", Morotoba said.

In addition, Morotoba told the meeting that the department provides supported employment to persons with disabilities through the 13 Supported Employment Enterprises (SEE) located in the eight provinces with the exception of Mpumalanga.

Morotoba called upon the Joint Portfolio Committees to assist in ensuring that SEEs have the necessary government and Public support through the procurement of their goods and services such as office and school furniture and private household furniture, hospital linen, garments including uniforms as well as steel products that include safes, furniture etc.

He said: “The spin-offs derived from these interventions will result in increased uptake of graduates from special schools in SEEs, integration of these graduates into the mainstream economy and making them economically active, achieving economic independence and restoration of dignity, and reducing dependencies on the national social security system".

On collaboration with other national departments, provincial governments and District Municipalities, Morotoba said: Minister Nomakhosazana Meth has been rolling out Labour Activation Programmes (LAP) to stimulate training, develop entrepreneurship and facilitate job creation. We are launching this program throughout the country and have to date covered 4 Provinces".

He said DEL has partnered with the DBE to fund the 450 000 Teacher Assistance Program at the tune of R4,5 billion under the UIF LAP Program that is to be facilitated by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the Presidency.

DDG Morotoba said in the month of April this year, the Department's Public Employment Services registered 79 067 work seekers and 41 741 job opportunities mainly from UIF and Agriculture. A total of 31 191 work seekers were provided with employment counselling and 62 692 were successfully placed in employment. “In addition, these initiatives are being supported by an additional 324 Interns that we recruited and placed in all our 126 Labour Centres under the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative", he said.

Morotoba told the gathering that the Department is aware of the various developments such as the introduction of databases and systems that are not legally compliant with the Employment Standard Act, malpractices and contestation in the recruitment and placement of people in various infrastructure projects. He said the department is working with the relevant authorities to curb such tendencies and practices.

According to Morotoba the department currently has a project called Intern Project 20 000 which is underway and will see the initial recruitment of 10 000 interns to beef-up the inspectorate this year. “A further 10 000 intern inspectors will be recruited next year", he said.

In conclusion, Morotoba said: “Department of Employment and Labour remains available to enter into partnerships with various stakeholders to resolve current unemployment challenge".

For media inquiries, please contact:

Teboho Thejane
Departmental Spokesperson
Cell: 082 697 0694
E-mail: teboho.thejane@labour.gov.za

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