Moving from a centralised to a network strategy in addressing unemployment

The Mangaung Metropolitan as a case study

Abstract

Unemployment is a challenge for the South African government, including of the Local Government. Many strategies were developed to do so, but with little success. This article argues that this is due to the application of a centralised approach instead of a network one. The centralized strategy is depleting state resources, whilst the private sector has expertise, skills, know-how and credit that could be used. The theory of network governance reiterates that partners are equal and function horizontally, which provides a safe environment for private partners in the network with the government structure retaining the responsibility of coordination and being at the centre of decision-making. This framework is applied to the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality’s Youth Enterprise Development Programme where the private sector was drawn in in line with the network approach. The article concludes that the mode of governance within local government needs to be transformed.