By Johnathan Paoli
As South Africa commemorated Youth Day this week, President Cyril Ramaphosa has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to creating meaningful work and learning opportunities for young people, a demographic most affected by unemployment.
In his weekly newsletter to the nation, Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that country must live up to the democratic ideals that generations of youth, including those of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, fought and died for.
“If we are to live up to the democratic promise for which so many sacrificed and gave their lives, we have to ensure that we invest in today’s generation of young people and unleash their potential,” the president said.
South Africa’s youth unemployment rate remains among the highest in the world, with more than 60% of people aged between 15 and 24 not in employment, education, or training.
To combat this, the government has rolled out several youth-focused programmes since 2020.
Chief among these is the Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES), which has created over two million jobs and livelihood opportunities since its inception.
According to Ramaphosa, 72% of those who have benefited from the stimulus are young people, while 66% are women.
Another flagship initiative is SAYouth.mobi, a free, data-zero-rated online recruitment platform that connects young people to work, learning, and training opportunities.
Over 4.7 million young South Africans have registered on the platform, and more than 1.6 million earning opportunities have been facilitated through it.
“Last week in the City of Tshwane, I met with a number of young people who told me excitedly they had been approached by potential employers who had seen their profiles on SAYouth.mobi,” Ramaphosa said.
He urged more young job seekers to make use of the platform and called on private sector employers to post opportunities there.
“Registration is free and the app is zero rated, meaning you can access the site and its contents without incurring any data charges,” he added.
Addressing a common barrier to youth employment, namely the lack of work experience, Ramaphosa noted that in 2019, the government abolished work experience requirements for entry-level public sector jobs.
Additionally, the Youth Employment Service, which was a private sector-led initiative, has placed thousands of young South Africans in various sectors to gain crucial workplace experience.
However, Ramaphosa emphasised that job placements alone were not enough.
“We must bolster skills development and foster an entrepreneurial culture. It is critical that we overcome the mismatch between the skills available in the workforce and market need,” he said.
To that end, the government was investing in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, expanding subsidies and building new campuses.
Thousands of TVET students and graduates were now being placed in structured workplace learning programmes annually.
He also reiterated that entrepreneurship could be a key driver of economic growth and youth employment, however, South Africa’s entrepreneurial activity lagged behind that of comparable nations.
In response, the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention was working closely with the National Youth Development Agency and the Small Business Development Department to provide both financial and non-financial support to young entrepreneurs.
“Through all of these initiatives, the state has supported millions of young South Africans with work opportunities, work experience and skills development. However, we can only vastly scale up youth employment with greater private sector involvement,” Ramaphosa said.
The president urged businesses to make use of the Employee Tax Incentive and other tools to hire young workers and collaborate with the government to expand pathways to employment.
“South Africa’s young people deserve to lead lives of dignity. Unemployment is robbing far too many youth of this right. Let us do all within our means to empower them to find jobs and create their own opportunities,” he said.
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