By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has dismissed claims suggesting he is using the Nasi Ispani campaign to boost the African National Congress’s (ANC) image ahead of 2024 national elections.
Lesufi briefed the media on Friday on the status of the applications and the selection process after Friday’s closing date.
The programme was launched to fill 8000 vacant posts at the provincial government in various sectors, including Education, Health, Social Development, Transport, Infrastructure, Economic Development, Agriculture and Environment.
The initiative has received criticism from opposition parties, including EFF and ActionSA in Gauteng, which has vowed to ensure that the programme is not used to secure jobs for ANC supporters in the runup to the 2024 elections.
A few days after the launch of the Nasi Ispani programme, the EFF was the first party to slam Lesufi, accusing him of using state campaigns to benefit the ANC.
Two weeks later, ActionSA threatened to take legal action against the premier, saying he was using the programme to employ what he called ANC cadres.
However, Lesufi said the parties were merely trying to ruin opportunities meant to help the unemployed.
“ActionSA, they accuse us of politics when they are playing politics, so we are not even prepared to engage with them. If you block this process, you block it for what? We have not even appointed a single person. You can’t say we are unfair.
“And if you say this process mustn’t appoint ANC members, are ANC members not allowed to fill posts? We don’t appoint them on the basis of political affiliation. We appoint them on the basis of their qualifications, skills and the work that they have done before.
“But they know why because they know if we address the issue of unemployment, it is going to dent the ambition that they think they can take this province,” said Lesufi.
Lesufi also gave an assurance that the applications will be kept in the database for possible future job opportunities.
“Unfortunately, for the 8000 posts that we have advertised, we have received 1 230 092 applications. If this is not the face of unemployment, then nothing will demonstrate the face of unemployment.
“So because we have received these numbers, we are of the view that as the Gauteng provincial government, even though we advertised for 8000 jobs, we are not going to send people regret letters. The ones that were supposed to be advertised until July next year, it is quite clear that there is no need for us to advertise.
“We must just recruit from this database, so we are now creating a database of unemployed people, and we are calling for businesses in our provinces, that those who want to recruit people for short-term businesses.
“(The) IEC, if they want to recruit people for running elections next year, businesses that have short-term Christmas jobs, we now have a database that we ask them to utilise so that this is the benchmark of killing unemployment in Gauteng,” he added.
He said the provincial government will also be changing the tender system to assist young people.
“We have also taken a decision that from now on, our tendering system will change. Our tendering system per annum utilises almost R37 billion, so we normally appoint people on the basis of price. We are adding labour so for anyone to get a tender, they will have to say how many people will be employed.
“So we are also going to use our tendering system now as a new mechanism of recruitment.”
He vowed the interviews and shortlisting of the candidates would be done publicly to silence those who claim only ANC members will fill vacancies and successful candidates will receive appointment letters at Orlando Stadium in Soweto on 27 July.
The unemployment figure in the country was at 32.9% in the first quarter of 2023. According to Statistics South Africa, the bulk of the unemployed were young.