It’s time to stop talking, talking, talking about youth unemployment and actually do something

As we reflect on the close of Youth Month, another one that has delivered splendid rhetoric with no practical action and an even worse state for youth than previous years, it is imperative that we both reflect on and put forward key suggestions on mitigating the looming crisis of youth unemployment.

The latest statistics from Statistics South Africa paint a bleak picture of the reality facing young South Africans. Stats SA indicates that there 20.6 million people between 15 and 34, of whom 34.1% are categorised as NEET — neither employed nor in any form of educational institution or training facility. The numbers are exponentially worse for black youth in the rural and peri-urban areas where the unemployment figures are north of 40%.

In addition, those who have been unemployed for three to five years are classified as chronically unemployed, meaning they will become unemployable.

These numbers necessitate more than a painful reflection on the lived experience of many young people across the country, but a meaningful engagement about possible interventions and programmes that can be undertaken to make headway in this challenge. I believe there are at least six key areas that should be prioritised to address the youth challenge:

1. The revision of the national youth policy was not taken with the requisite importance it demanded. Those who have engaged with the policy and put forward comments for the revised one will note that it is basically a duplicate of the previous one. This is indicative of the urgency, or lack thereof, in how the state is dealing with challenges facing young people;


2. A youth policy is supposed to be the foundation of how the state and its affiliated agencies will respond to everything related to the youth: unemployment, violence, skills development and support of entrepreneurial ventures are among an array of issues. The policy, in its current draft, offers no hope that the state will respond with the necessary interventions;


3. We must start looking at more public-private partnerships to accelerate youth employment initiatives. Where government institutions might have the resources, they have often lacked in implementation. Institutions such as Harambe, Youth Employment Services (YES) and YouthLab, among others, need better partnership to ensure co-ordination and consistency of policy and subsequent implementation with proper monitoring and evaluations of the progress being made. As an example, Harambe has over the course of its existence, along with its various partners, helped more than 700,000 young people with job opportunities and career pathways;


4. I firmly believe that South Africa ought to prioritise a number of industries and sectors where young people will be trained, investments will be prioritised and jobs created. For example, in the 1990s in India, the government of the day decided to focus on the fields of Information Technology and Information and Communications Technology. Today, it is no surprise to see some of the world-leading companies in that space coming from India, such as Wipro, Mindtree and Tata Consultancy Services, among others. The CEO of Alphabet and Google is from India. The point is, we have an opportunity to assess which sectors and industries have the potential to be high growth and labour intensive to direct investment that will extract value with the intention of youth employment;


5. July is supposed to see the Africa Continental Free Trade Area officially come into operation after being ceremonially launched in July of 2019. This landmark agreement opens the African market of 1.3 billion people with a collective GDP of $2.5-trillion. South Africa can leverage this to ensure small and medium companies get exposed to this bigger market and are supported in the scaling up to service the reach; and


6. A national youth service should be reintroduced, this time in co-ordination with private colleges, TVET institutions and SETA training programmes to ensure that skills needed in the market are offered. The current lockdown has displayed in full view our governance failures and shortcomings. Depleted public infrastructure provides an opportunity to redirect certain opportunities such as public sector road infrastructure rehabilitation programmes. This will ensure young people are serving their country and their communities, gaining valuable skills while having jobs that bring dignity.

The reality is, we cannot keep on speaking about “young people being the future” when we are not actively investing in their development. This potential demographic dividend can easily become a demographic catastrophe if failed by the inactions of today’s leaders. June can no longer be Youth Month in rhetoric only. Programmes of action, co-ordination of policies, investment into quality skills development platforms and support for entrepreneurial ventures are paramount in the support of young people. DM