Today the Director-General of the Labour Department, Nkosinati Nhleko, reported to the Portfolio Committee on Labour that the National Training Layoff Scheme spent only R40.2 million of its multibillion Rand budget in the past financial year, and provided only 6 000 workers with new jobs. This is an underwhelming performance by a programme which has a budget of R2.4 billion.

This Scheme is supposed to find new employment opportunities for workers who lose their jobs. The Scheme spent only 1.6% of its funds to create new opportunities, even though 902 000 South Africans have become unemployed since the economic downturn. Furthermore, the Scheme failed to provide any new opportunities in the Free State, Northern Cape or Limpopo, and only 65 people were helped in Mpumalanga. These provinces were all hard hit by the recession and have shed thousands of jobs. These are the communities that need the Scheme’s assistance most.

I will today be writing to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Labour to ask that the Director-General reports back to the portfolio committee on a bi-monthly basis about the steps the Scheme is taking to use its considerable resources to greater effect. These report-backs must happen until the Portfolio Committee is satisfied that the operations of the Scheme have been sufficiently improved.

President Zuma has declared 2011 the year of the job. With initiatives such as the National Training Layoff Scheme, government had an ideal opportunity to make good on its commitment to tackling unemployment.

However, the lack of urgency with which the jobs crisis has been addressed shows a disregard by the Zuma administration for the plight of unemployed South Africans. It is unacceptable that billions of rands were available to the National Training Layoff Scheme, and only a small percentage spent. The vast sums of money left in the Scheme’s coffers represents job opportunities that should have been made available to the South Africans that need them most.

South Africa is facing a growing jobs crisis. The Department of Labour should be using all resources at its disposal to ensure that our country’s high levels of unemployment are decisively addressed. Where this is not happening, such as in the case of the National Training Layoff Scheme, swift action must be taken.