Blade Nzimande announced a R10m construction skills development and job creation project in Bredasdorp, to uplift the youth in the community.
|||Johannesburg - Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande announced on Saturday a R10 million construction skills development and job creation project in Bredasdorp, Western Cape to uplift the youth in the community.
Nzimande said it was an attempt to “ease the material conditions” of the community to tackle poverty and unemployment to avoid crime.
“Working together with the Construction Seta and the local municipality we have decided to honour the memory of the young Anene Booysen through this project,” he said.
“She was working on a construction site where RDP houses were being built when this incident took place. She was actively contributing to ensuring a better life for herself and her family through working on that construction site.”
On February 2, 17-year-old Booysen was raped and murdered.
Booysen visited a Bredasdorp nightclub on Friday, February 1. A few hours later, she was gang raped and mutilated. She was found at the construction site where she worked the next morning. She died in hospital later that day.
Nzimande said the partnership with the Construction Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) and the Cape Agulhas Municipality would contribute to the reduction of the high unemployment and poverty rates.
He said the department wanted learning and training opportunities channelled to townships and rural areas.
“I have requested my department to ensure that skills development and training are taken to townships and rural communities because that is where these are needed the most,” he said.
“From the discussions the CETA has had with them and the municipality, it was collectively decided that the CETA would contribute R10 million to address the skills needs of the community.”
A skills and development centre will be opened and named in honour of Booysen.
Nzimande urged the youth in Bredasdorp to make use of the opportunity.
The African National Congress (ANC) in the Western Cape welcomed the programme.
“While one does not want to be seen to make political mileage out of such an issue, it is instructive that for all its talk of schemes to aid the youth in the Western Cape by the (Democratic Alliance) DA, it is the ANC that is delivering,” provincial chairman Marius Fransman said.
“Similar schemes would be initiated throughout the province.” - Sapa