Questions are being asked about the usefulness of a R500-million youth development programme being launched.
The aim of the National Rural Youth Services Corps (Narysec), an initiative of the department of rural development and land reform, is to develop skills among 18- to 35-year-olds in rural areas. But what these skills actually are is yet to be revealed.
David Neves, poverty researcher at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (Plaas), says: “The term ‘skills development’ is extremely unclear.” According to the department’s press release “the objective of Narysec is to recruit and develop youth in rural areas — to be paraprofessionals [trained workers who assist professionals] who will provide community service in their communities.
The programme is expected to create about 10 000 opportunities for at least four youths from [each of] the 3 000 rural wards in the country — Skills development will include discipline, patriotism, life skills, rights awareness and specific skills areas, empowering youth to change [their] rural areas.” Successful candidates will receive a monthly stipend of R1 320 while undergoing two years of training in skills identified during their induction.
“The critical issue is what are the skills that are going to be imparted,” says Kate Philip, technical support provider to the Community Work Programme, a similar project run on a much larger scale.
“A lot also depends on the calibre of training. We don’t know at this point how these people are going to be supervised and the kind of support they’re going to get.”
Neves says there is a gap around “hard skills” and the entry points into the labour market for both formal employment and informal self-employment. “What is required are technical skills — things like carpentry, animal husbandry and agricultural skills. What on earth do they mean by two years of patriotism, discipline and rights awareness?
“People can be quite critical of life skills-based training. People have specific needs, like how to cure certain illnesses or how to use a specific type of sewing machine,” Neves says.
“This seems to be underpinned by a large dose of optimism. It concerns me that the phrases used are all things that are fairly intangible. Also, when the trainees are called paraprofessionals, who are they auxiliary to? Who are the professionals in this domain, or are they going to be left in an organisational no man’s land?”
But the department insists that the skills to be imparted will be useful.
“Besides the ‘soft skills’ mentioned above, Narysec recruits will receive ‘hard skills’ training for careers as bricklayers, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, roofers, welders, etcetera,” says Eddie Mohoebi, spokesperson for the department. “Job creation is a critical component.”
He says the department will spend R500-million on the programme — on stipends and training costs — over the next three years. Discipline and patriotism will be instilled during the recruits’ seven-week programme at the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), during which they would “go to church and do not indulge in alcohol or drugs”.
“The curriculum they go through includes civic education, office administration, etiquette, patriotism, self-control, respect and caring for others and — [they] are exposed to the strict discipline of the SANDF — This should have positive character development [implications] for the youth involved.”
Concerns over youth corps recruits ‘met with aggression’
The Narysec made it into the spotlight this week — but not for skills development. Instead, AfriForum Youth and the spokesperson for the ministry of defence and military veterans butted heads over whether Nasyrec was “recruiting” candidates who had been selected by the ANC Youth League (ANCYL).
According to Charl Oberholzer, chairperson of AfriForum Youth, a group from the organisation visited the offices of Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu on Tuesday, and was met with “aggression” by spokesperson Ndivhuwo Mabaya. They wanted to know how 500 Nasyrec recruits for military training had been selected, and whether they had been selected by the ANCYL. “[Mabaya] insulted us and shouted at us, and told us we were wasting his time,” said Oberholzer.
“Our big concern is that youth who are affiliated with a political organisation are the only ones who will benefit from the training. We want information on how the trainees were recruited. The training should be open to the public and not just political parties.”
But Mabaya said: “The information they are looking for is on the internet. We don’t have time for these kinds of things. The minister has already said that these people were recruited by the department of rural development; it’s in her budget speech. They are bored sitting there in their office. We can’t deal with young boys and girls who come to play in front of our offices; they must find better entertainment.”
Eddie Mohoebi, spokesperson for the department of rural development and land reform, said that “there is no truth” in the allegation that Narysec candidates were selected by the ANCYL.
“The three tiers of government [national, provincial and local government], with the participation of the council of stakeholders, participated in the Narysec youth recruitment processes and not political parties or structures.”