With transport costs often cited among the key barriers in young people’s pursuit of employment, a newly-forged initiative is looking to overcome that obstacle.
E-hailer Uber SA and employment accelerator Harambee yesterday announced a partnership that will see the former provide 100 000 rides to job-seekers going to interviews.
In addition, the partnership aims to support 10 000 young people to access earning opportunities on the Uber platform, helping them to take their first step into the digital economy.
The launch event brought together officials from the Department of Employment and Labour, the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention, Harambee, as well as various stakeholders.
According to Uber SA, the collaboration is designed to tackle some of the most pressing barriers young people face in finding work, such as the cost of transport, access to earning opportunities and limited skills.
Speaking on the sidelines of the launch event, Deepesh Thomas, GM for Uber Sub-Saharan Africa, explained that the e-hailer will open up roles within Uber that people can apply for. The Harambee database will be used for candidates to apply for earning opportunities – to become drivers, couriers or delivery people on the platform.
“Transportation is what we specialise in, and we don’t want that, in terms of affordability and accessibility, to be one of the areas where there’s a barrier to someone getting an earnings opportunity. So, we have pledged 100 000 trips to and from earning opportunities on the Harambee app.
“This will be facilitated by Harambee – the app is data-free. When a job-seeker registers on the profile, Harambee will be able to distribute vouchers for specific job interviews where Uber will fund the ride.”
Thomas continued: “Work in South Africa cannot only mean traditional jobs. The digital economy is already creating meaningful opportunities that lower barriers and empower young people. This partnership is about scaling those opportunities and showing how the private sector can be part of the solution.”
According to Statistics SA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey, 58.7% of youth between the ages of 18 to 35 are unemployed − which employment and labour deputy minister Ntuthuko Mbongiseni Jomo Sibiya described as a “ticking timebomb”.
The survey also shows that more than 9.2 million South Africans are not in education, employment or training.
Given the escalating youth unemployment figures, there has been impetus on “high growth” sectors, including the platform economy, which provides a flexible earning model.
Employees in the platform economy are said to achieve average gross earnings of between R12 400 to R14 000 per month, with operating costs reaching a high of R6 800, according to Harambee chief communications officer Zengeziwe Msimang.
Sibiya added: “Partnerships like this must move from pilots to platforms, from single events to sustained ecosystems.
“It is my honour to officially launch the Uber-Harambee partnership for economic participation; let us all work together for the future of this country, and make sure our children inherit a better country than the country inherited by us.”
Alternative ways of work
Thirteen-year-old youth employment accelerator Harambee partners with government, business and civil society to increase the participation of young people within the economy.
In 2021, it was appointed as the national pathway manager by the Presidency under the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention, which gave rise to jobs portal SA Youth.mobi.
SA Youth is a centralised platform where young people can see employment opportunities, while partners can showcase these openings. There are 4.8 million young people registered on the platform and 3.9 million young work-seekers actively engage with it. The female to male ratio is split 66% and 34%, respectively.
In addition, the platform has 1 386 employer partners that are active, upload jobs and hire some of the young people registered on the platform.
Msimang told attendees that it’s difficult for young people to enter the labour market and even more difficult to navigate the world of entrepreneurship.
“For years, traditional pathways to employment have struggled to keep pace with the ambitions of young people. The rapid expansion of the platform economy offers a new horizon…it is entrepreneurial, scalable and accessible to young people.”
Msimang pointed out that the local last-mile delivery sector is forecast to grow at an annual compound rate of 7.4% from 2024 to 2030, with its value rising from R9.6 billion to R62.6 billion in 2030. She added that e-commerce is projected to reach R307 billion by the end of the decade, with the digital economy expected to generate 341 000 new jobs by 2025.
“These are not just numbers, they are signals of transformative change, driven by the innovation in townships, the rise of the gig platforms and the entrepreneurial spirit of young people. Access to affordable vehicles, technology and micro-financing also becomes critical.
“As we solve for youth unemployment as an ecosystem, the platform economy allows us to think about new ways of working and new ways of enabling youth to access self-employment opportunities at scale.
“Self-employment for youth offers the opportunity to create innovation and flexible pathways for earning, where platform operators become the intermediaries that connect young people to a multitude of opportunities, to make their own money and have decent livelihoods.”
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