Durban - The youth office attached to the eThekwini Municipality mayor has announced that a programme to help young people get their driving licences is going to get off the ground soon.
About 150 young people will benefit in the pilot phase of this project that is being driven by the office of mayor Mxolisi Kaunda.
Nokuthula Hlophe from the mayor’s Youth Development Office spoke on the importance of the programme recently. She was speaking on the City’s communication platform, eThekwini Matters.
“The mayor has spoken at length in various community outreach programmes, saying that he will be launching this, and we are here to say it's coming very soon. It's going to be looking at benefiting 150 or more young people as a start as this is a pilot programme,” she said.
She added that this was a form of assistance, saying they had engaged the City’s Human Capital Unit to find out the nature that the impact of being without a driving licence had on job prospects. They learned that many youths lost out on opportunities because they did not have a licence.
“When you have your matric, plus a driver’s licence, you have a very attractive CV,” she said.
She said information on the programme would soon be available on different platforms, including on the City’s social media pages to ensure that all young people had a fair opportunity to apply.
Those who were not successful in the first phase should not despair because there would be other opportunities to apply as the programme would take place every financial year.