Gauteng is set to relaunch Nasi Ispani in June, creating 32,000 jobs for Assistant Teachers, Premier Panyaza Lesufi announced on Thursday.
Speaking at a media briefing in Midrand, Lesufi revealed that the programme will recruit the youth across the province, marking a major boost for youth employment and the education sector.
Lesufi said he was undeterred by criticism from opposition parties on the mass recruitment programme.
“The people who are criticising us on Nasi Ispani understand the effectiveness of this programme. We’re not doing it for political mileage, we’re doing it to fight unemployment.
“But what they’re saying now is that you have poor homes, you’ve got incomplete buildings, traffic lights that have gone down, roads that are not maintained, you’ve got grass that is not cut.
“On the other side, you’ve got youth in the townships who are unemployed. So you train them to do the work and pay them,” he said.
The initiative has been characterised by some as a campaign by the ANC to garner support ahead of the 2024 national and provincial elections. The Democratic Alliance (DA) and ActionSA have consistently raised concerns regarding Lesufi’s approach since the programme’s initial launch in 2023.
Lesufi said this was a “next round of Nasi Ispani.”
“It’s a skills training to be welders, to know how to put in tiles, to be plumbers. So we have already done that. We’ve got 560,000 and 544,000 unemployed people. They want to be trained, either to be welders, plumbers, electricians, all these things.”
He added that the relaunch will now go to TVET colleges.
Politics
