South Africa faces a daunting challenge with more than 45% of its youth unemployed. Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube and Nape Senong, a mobiliser strategist with Youth Capital empowering youth and women to address the country’s pressing needs, as well as support to address underrepresentation, with only 12 MPs aged 20-29 out of 400.
They were speaking on a webinar hosted by Daily Maverick journalist Suné Payne.
The discussion focused on young people in the country and the power of working together — looking into the number of young people in Parliament and ongoing youth unemployment.
Empowering women and youth
With South Africa’s alarming youth unemployment rate of 45.5% among young individuals aged 15-34, compared with the national average of 32.9%, Gwarube shared the importance of empowering young people and women, especially in politics.
However, she said that she did not share the view that young people in political positions should be confined to youth leagues and youth desks.
“I think that young people should contest political power inside their political parties. I think the same thing about women, I think women should not be confined to women’s desks and women’s leagues.
“While I think there’s a role for those organisations to play, when it comes to contesting political power young people and women should contest the main political power, they should be the ones who are starting the debate… and they must occupy positions of power,” Gwarube said.
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Reflecting on her own experience, Gwarube, 35, said: “Being a young MP in South Africa is something that should have been happening a long time ago. The African continent has one of the youngest populations in the world, and it is a weird and strange phenomenon to me that as young as the population of the African continent is, the leaders on the African continent remain almost double or triple the age of the people they lead.’’
Roots of Unemployment
With statistics indicating that the majority of South Africa’s population of 60.6 million is comprised of youth, Gwarube attributed South Africa’s longstanding unemployment to historical and systemic factors.
“For historical reasons, black South Africans mostly were not able to obtain good quality education, which is part of the reason we need to undo that. The South African economy has not grown over one percent in the past decade; you can’t have young people in work if you’re not growing the economy.
“The energy crisis, companies not investing due to poor service delivery, rampant corruption — all these factors combine to make South Africa an unviable place for young people to start businesses. There’s also excessive red tape for young entrepreneurs. People will tell you the statistics show that small businesses are unlikely to survive the first five years,” Gwarube said.
Since the youth comprise the largest percentage of the population and face the highest unemployment rates, Nape advised that “solving young people’s problems is like solving the country’s problems”.
In a card game organised by Youth Capital, Gwarube was asked the question: “How do you feel when people say young people are lazy and waiting for handouts?”
In the webinar, Gwarube responded that the question made her very angry because “young people have been let down seriously in our country and I think nobody chooses a life of indignity… nobody chooses a life where you have to ask for a handout”.
Youth Empowerment
Gwarube challenged the notion that placing youth in positions of power automatically addressed their issues. Instead, she argued that quality education and youth unemployment were national concerns that those in power should tackle because of the instability that otherwise resulted.
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Nape echoed this sentiment as he reflected on the 2015 Fees Must Fall protests, noting that although various political parties took many young people from the protest to Parliament, their presence didn’t truly prioritise youth concerns there.
Youth Unemployment Solutions
To address unemployment, Gwarube stressed the importance of growing the economy and enhancing the quality of education for young people.
Similarly, Nape highlighted the importance of engaging with young people through approachable government and technology, stating: “We have to meet young people where they are, whether it’s on TikTok, social media, going into their communities to engage with them because a lot of government and other engagements are always centred around going to where the government is, going to town for public consultations… the consultations are always far and then means the consultations aren’t meaningful… Those in power should be going to where young people are.”
Nape also stressed the importance of collaborations and youth involvement in various organisations, highlighting the need for young people to be treated as “partners rather than just beneficiaries”. DM