A very warm welcome to you, from the Executive Committee of the eThekwini Municipality, to the African Renaissance Festival 2016.

The theme “Entrepreneurs of Africa” is closely aligned to the key strategies and priorities of the eThekwini Municipality. Youth programmes currently form an integral part of the mayoral programme, which include sport, youth skills development and entrepreneurship.

Government has identified poverty, inequality and unemployment as the main challenges that face youth in our society today. In order for radical economic transformation to take place in our City it is necessary to provide holistic and innovative interventions to these socioeconomic questions.

EThekwini Municipality has made a concerted effort to meaningful impact on young people by providing an enabling environment for them to become successful.

It is apparent that entrepreneurs and small, medium and micro enterprises are vital contributors to the health of the economy and offer diverse opportunities to our society. Entrepreneurs boost productivity, increase competition and create employment and prosperity as well as revitalise our communities.

To eradicate youth unemployment, our Municipality has made practical efforts to increase the City’s employment absorption through learnerships, internships and other forms of apprenticeships. It is imperative that the youth strive to become productive through acquiring technical skills, which are in
demand.

We believe that we have an important role to play in promoting and facilitating a conducive environment for learning and teaching at all levels of education. We need today’s young and bright minds. As such the establishment of the Student Financial Aid Fund offers bursaries to learners from disadvantaged backgrounds to ensure that they have access to education. This year we have selected 50 students that will receive support to the tune of R3.6 million. These students are enrolled in scarce skills areas such as medicine, engineering, property valuation, accounting and computer technology.