Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Sindisiwe Chikunga has called for stronger strategic partnerships between government and the private sector to accelerate youth economic inclusion, women's empowerment, food security, skills development, and inclusive economic growth.
The Minister made the call at the KFC Africa Impact Report Launch in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
Held under the theme: "Private Sector as a Partner in Youth Economic Inclusion and Food Security", KFC Africa's Impact Report highlights the company's contribution to youth employment, entrepreneurship, and food security through three key pillars.
The first focuses on creating jobs at scale by providing employment opportunities and skills development within the quick service restaurant sector, while the second showcases the company's franchise model as a vehicle for accelerating small business growth by expanding Black-owned enterprises and advancing economic empowerment.
The third pillar, Add Hope, highlights KFC Africa's support for vulnerable communities through its feeding programme, which has provided more than 180 million meals to children since 2009 to support school nutrition and household food security.
Together, the three pillars demonstrate the company's efforts to promote employment, enterprise development and social impact across South Africa.
Delivering her keynote address, Chikunga commended KFC Africa for its contribution to youth employment through its workforce and its participation in the Youth Employment Service (YES), a public-private partnership that has enabled more than 200 000 young South Africans from being labelled as "unemployed" to being registered as "employed" through a 12-month work experience placement in the private sector.
She said the company's impact report demonstrated how partnerships between business and government could create employment opportunities, support Black-owned enterprises through franchising and contribute to food security initiatives.
Chikunga urged companies operating across the food, agriculture, hospitality, and distribution sectors to expand opportunities for young people through skills development, enterprise support and integration into supply chains.
“Our young people must be trained, integrated, and transitioned into viable businesses across the food, agricultural value chains, and related industries — from primary production to logistics and distribution, to the food services and hospitality sector, and into the digital platforms that increasingly mediate all of these.
“Every young South African who enters an agricultural value chain, or a food services enterprise, or a hospitality business, must have an exit pathway in place. This is what youth economic inclusion means, substantively. It is the substantive integration of young people into productive enterprises, on terms that give them ownership, agency, and the substantive prospect of accumulation,” the Minister said.
She said emerging Black farmers, particularly women and persons with disabilities, should be supported to transition into commercial agribusinesses through technical support, access to finance, market opportunities and supply chain integration.
"The multiplier effect of a young farmer transitioning into commercial scale is substantively higher than the multiplier effect of most other sectors of the economy. The private sector must recognise this — and act on it.”
Chikunga also highlighted the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as an opportunity to help young entrepreneurs expand beyond local markets into continental and international trade.
She called for greater investment in youth-owned small businesses through franchise development programmes and stronger integration of small enterprises into corporate value chains.
The Minister further called for greater investment in the digital economy, saying expanding affordable internet access and digital opportunities would help young people participate more fully in the modern economy.
“The digital and platform economy is one of the substantive frontiers of the twenty-first century economic mission. Our young people are on that frontier already. The private sector must meet them there,” she said. – SAnews.gov.za
