WATCH | Government will consider number of employees companies hire before awarding tenders: Lesufi

Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi says the government, before awarding tenders to private companies, will consider the number of employees companies hire as he believes this plays a part in addressing unemployment.

According to Stats SA, Gauteng had the third largest unemployment rate in March, with 34.3% of the population without jobs.

Speaking at an ANC gathering at the weekend, Lesufi said private companies awarded tenders by the government needed to do more to provide job opportunities. 

“From August 1 new tenders in Gauteng will not be determined by price only. We are setting aside R67bn — before we give you a tender, you must tell us how many people you will employ,” he said.

“When you give us the number of people you will employ, we will take them from the 1.3-million [unemployment] database and give you them.

“Gone are the days when people with tenders buy Range Rovers. They must hire our people before they get the cheque. A tender must come with nasi ispani [jobs].”

Lesufi urged the government to advertise vacant posts to create job opportunities. 

“We are challenging government to advertise all their vacant posts to hire people in our province.

“In Gauteng we will not write a rejection letter to anyone. We will do everything in our power to absorb the 1.3-million [unemployed people] either in the private sector, government or take them back to university so that they can get new degrees.”

Last week Lesufi said the government received more than 1.2-million applications for the 8,000 jobs advertised on the Nasi iSpani recruitment programme. 

“Unfortunately, which is very sad, for the 8,000 posts we advertised we received 1,230,092 applications. Of that total, 1,171,035 applications were received online. Through paper-based and the mass centres we received 359,057 applications. These are the people who went to community halls,” he said. 

The 8,000 jobs had an age restriction of 35 (must be 35 or younger) and unemployed people complained they were not considered. 

“We are committed to support all ages but we can’t donate our future, the youth, to alcohol, drugs and gender-based violence. We have to take a stand and on this one I am unapologetic. More opportunities without age restrictions are coming.”

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