The city council in Johannesburg, which recently introduced “opportunity centres” to boost small businesses, will soon launch a database of job seekers to give residents access to temporary work opportunities on a fair and rotational basis, mayor Herman Mashaba said on Wednesday.
In his annual state of the city address, Mashaba said Johannesburg would introduce more opportunity centres in coming weeks which would focus on registering companies on its supplier database and offering training to improve small firms’ ability to apply for tenders for city projects.
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The centres would also house the work seekers’ database which would effectively remove the reliance on middle-men for access to temporary jobs “previously reserved for the connected few”, Mashaba said.
“Arising from this database will be beginnings of a massive artisan training programme,” he said, adding that 300 youth would shortly begin training.
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“As a country, we have failed to train young people and provide them with these critical skills. This is the start of a much bigger project that will see thousands of youth trained, gaining the requisite certification and experience in partnership with the private sector.”
– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa
