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The Young Communist League’s attack on the Treasury’s research into the Youth Wage Subsidy is yet another attempt to divert attention away from hard facts regarding the subsidy.

How the Young Communist League (YCL) arrived at the conclusion that the Treasury’s research was a failure, despite the Treasury stating that preliminary results indicate that those in the voucher group are significantly more likely to be in employment than those who were not allocated a voucher, is a mystery.

If the YCL do not feel that they have sufficient proof of the Youth Wage Subsidy’s benefits to back it, we invite them to visit the Western Cape’s Youth Wage Subsidy Programme.

At this visit they will see that through the provision of a R1 200 stipend for each employee, the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism is able to incentivise businesses to hire unemployed young people and bring them into the formal economy. They will see that the Work and Skills for 100 000 programme has already provided employment opportunities for 2 966 participants since 2009.

This visit will definitely cure the YCL of their hallucinations regarding the Youth Wage Subsidy’s viability.

The longer it takes for the implementation of the policy, the harder it will be to undo the damage caused by youth unemployment to our society.

We will not tolerate anyone putting progressive and innovative policies like the Youth Wage Subsidy on the backburner. We will not allow the dreams of young people in South Africa to be ripped apart by ideological differences and self-serving interests any longer.

In OUR South Africa, the policy would have been implemented, and an estimated 300 000 young South Africans would already have benefited from it to date.