Pretoria – The Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Buti Manamela, says young South Africans must make the most of the opportunities government has made available to them to improve their lives.
“As government, we would like to encourage the youth to reach for the opportunities that government has availed to them. Young people have great ideas and we would like to see them exploring them,” he said.
Manamela, who is the Deputy Minister of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation responsible for Youth Development as well as the Administration of the Presidency, today visited Siyaphumelela Cooperative Development Project (SCDP) in Orange Farm, just outside Johannesburg.
The recycling cooperative enterprise is owned by young people. They received a grant from the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) to purchase equipment for their business. Members of the co-op are also beneficiaries of Siyaphumelela entrepreneurship and other services offered by the NYDA.
Deputy Minister Manamela told SAnews that he was impressed with the project. During his visit, employees were hard at work separating bottles from paper and other waste material.
Xolani Sikhakhane, one of the project leaders, said they would like see the project growing and employing more people.
“The project is growing every day,” he said.
Currently, the project employs 21 people.
Sikhakhane said their plan is to grow from a small emerging cooperative into a sustainable waste management entity. Sikhakhane said some of the locals depend on the project to put food on the table for their families.
The locals bring in waste materials and in return they get paid.
NYDA Deputy Executive Chairperson Kenny Morolong said they will continue to assist young people to start their own businesses.
“We are working with government and municipalities to ensure that young people access our services,” he said.
The NYDA Grant Programme is designed to provide young entrepreneurs with an opportunity to access both financial and non-financial business development support to establish their businesses.
Thus far, the NYDA has supported more than 500 youth businesses to the tune of R25 million.
Deputy Minister Manamela has been visiting NYDA offices throughout the country to assess service delivery and get first-hand experience about their daily operations. – SAnews.gov.za
