Abstract
This study examines the nature and organisation of youth employment interventions and the way these interventions have contributed towards addressing youth unemployment in the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) in South Africa. Despite diverse employment interventions from different state and non-state actors that seek to address the problem of youth unemployment, it remains a global challenge facing many countries in the Global South, including South Africa. The employment interventions produce varying outcomes towards addressing youth unemployment in different contexts. This provides a scope to explore agency and the politics of youth employment interventions in the context of South Africa. The study draws from the key concepts of structuration theory and the actor-oriented approach to provide a conceptual and theoretical framework for understanding and explaining employment interventions in the CoE. The integration of structuration theory and the actor-oriented approach to explain the agency and the politics of employment interventions is a novel contribution to the scientific knowledge of this study. The study adopted qualitative research methods to generate and analyse qualitative data in which twenty-eight (28) respondents were interviewed. The respondents consisted of fifteen (15) youths who have benefited from the employment interventions and thirteen (13) state and non-state actors directly involved in the development and implementation of employment interventions. The thesis findings reveal agency in terms of increasing collaboration and networks between actors which facilitate the mobilisation of resources for the development and implementation of employment interventions, information sharing of the available employment interventions for the unemployed youth. This includes referrals of youth to employment interventions that are tailored to their needs, which enhance the capabilities of the employment interventions to address youth unemployment. The thesis however, established that there are politics surrounding the nature and organisation of these interventions, such as regulatory dimensions around implementation and interactions between actors based on common interests and characteristics, which have an impact on how the employment interventions contribute to alleviating youth unemployment. Overall, the study reveals diverse youth employment interventions as well as agency, and the politics surrounding the development and implementation of youth employment interventions. This study advocates for a multidimensional methodological approach to youth employment interventions that focuses on both the beneficiaries and the implementors. Above all a model that is holistic and multipronged while combining efforts from diverse stakeholders is envisaged for addressing youth unemployment in the City and across south Africa and beyond.