Youth body: Give wage subsidy to employed

Johannesburg - The youth wage subsidy should be given to those who are already employed to improve their salaries, the Progressive Youth Alliance said on Tuesday.

"The recipients of such employment incentives should be those who are already employed, the private sector is overly incentivised as it is," Young Communist League of SA (YCLSA) secretary general Buti Manamela told journalists in Johannesburg.

The YCLSA is part of the Progressive Youth Alliance that includes the African National Congress Youth League, the Young Communist League of SA, and the SA Students' Congress (Sasco)

Manamela said there were already many programmes, especially skills development programmes, through which the private sector was paid incentives.

The organisations addressed journalists under the auspices of the PYA following a meeting it held recently.

The ANC said on Monday it and its alliance partner the Congress of SA Trade Unions were in agreement over the youth wage subsidy.

"There is a general agreement on this approach by the ANC and Cosatu," ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe told reporters.

Cosatu was reported to be against the scheme as it feared it would push older workers out of jobs.

Mantashe said it was intended for young people, graduates, and students in tertiary institutions that needed to complement formal study with practical work. Companies that employed them would be paid incentives.

ANCYL acting secretary general Kenetswe Mosenogi said the scheme would displace workers in permanent jobs.

"It will also perpetuate the cycle of poverty. We will be watching discussions closely and are confident that the wage subsidy will not be thrown into the process through the backdoor by our ANC government."

Sasco secretary general Tshiamo Tsotetsi said the PYA was "generally" not opposed to the idea of the wage subsidy, but said it lacked details.