Employment and Labour advocacy campaign

By Emily Setona

QWAQWA – Employment and labour embarks on an advocacy campaign and invites employers and key stakeholders to share with them information about the services that the department offers.

The employer campaign includes informing employers of the departments services of recruitment and a new system of filling that allows for employers to be able to update their employers themselves without having to physically go to the employment and labour offices. According to assistant director and career councillor Khanimamba Mavundza the role of the Public Employment Services (PES) is to tackle unemployment.

“We tackle unemployment by registering unemployed work seekers on our database which is called employment services of South Africa. If a client is on our database and there is an opportunity that the client qualifies for then we match them with the opportunity. Then it is up to them whether they take it or not. We also help them with marketing them to the employers who are on our database.”

The advocacy campaign included an information session that was aimed at informing employers that they can come to the department of labour to recruit from them. “Any person from the age of 18 years can come and register with us on our database if they are willing to work. Employers who have vacancies in their departments can come to us and we can assist them to fill those vacancies,” employment service practitioner Sarah Xaba said. The group of employers who attended the event said that it was very informative and eye opening for them.

“As an employer you must take responsibility and make sure that your employees are fully registered with the department of labour. People must also go and check if their names are not registered on the database because there are instances of fraud that happen with people’s personal information taken and used without their knowledge. This was a very informative and empowering session for me as a small business owner,” Winnie Mokoena said.

Karabo Komane from Cum Laude Institute says that their participation as a stakeholder is to create brand awareness and offer information about what their organisation does.

“We create learnership opportunities for people living with disabilities through our partnership with the Food and Beverage SETA,” Komane said.