City Press reports that the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) will soon meet with Department of Employment & Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi in order to register its concerns about the plight of young people in the country who are unemployed.
This follows the scathing remarks made by ANCYL president Collen Malatji at the weekend, in which he publicly criticised the minister for the country's high unemployment rate and appeared to call for his removal from office. Addressing the league's national congress in the Free State, Malatji, who was elected the leader of the ANCYL in July after it had been without elected leadership for almost a decade, took a dig at Nxesi. He described him as the "minister of unemployment" and accused him of having no solutions to deal with the 4.9 million young people who were unemployed. “We are no longer going to delegate this responsibility to pensioners. The responsibility to take this country forward is upon us, but you cannot do that if you have no solutions,” Malatji told delegates, adding that Nxesi should be removed from office as a matter of urgency. The critical remarks from Malatji led to a statement from the ANC, calling him to order. Speaking to City Press on Wednesday, ANCYL national spokesperson Zama Khanyase appeared to walk back Malatji's specific call for Nxesi to be fired from Cabinet, saying the youth leader was merely highlighting the scourge of unemployment for young people in the country.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thapelo Lekabe at City Press (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page