On Youth Day, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced various measures to improve the prospects of young people landing jobs in the public sector. It was encouraging to hear of some of the steps that are in the pipeline.

The first question that popped up in my mind was: how will the authenticity of documents  be verified?

We know how many people have claimed to have degrees and doctoral qualifications they don't have, earning salaries they didn’t deserve. Will this approach only be applicable to public service jobs? That seemed to be the case. Which other countries do that?

Of course, it cannot be easy for anyone to find solutions to the unemployment problem, especially as we have millions who must compete for the scarce jobs. This brings us to the elephant in the room – the one that saw a six-hour disruption of traffic on the N3 on Youth Day.

It cannot be ignored as it will never go away. It has to be approached head-on. One strategy used by some foreigners to improve their chances of making a living is that  they form informal companies where they bring together their various skills as a group – for instance, a bricklayer, an electrician, a plumber, one who does roofing, built-in cupboards and so on.

The important thing is that they never go hungry and are always busy making money.  So, if I have a plumbing problem, I easily get a referral from one of the group members.

We have to start being innovative as we are clearly headed for very tough times. The future is in everyone’s hands, handouts can never solve our problems.

Cometh Dube-Makholwa, Midrand