speech about unemployment in south africa

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The struggle of unemployment: A South African perspective

South Africa achieved independence in 1994, but years later, there has been little improvement in the general populace’s poverty levels. While the country remains one of Africa’s strongest economies, statistics indicate that close to 50% of the population lives in poverty. (Based on south African government poverty measure where the upper bound poverty line is approximately $70 per month.)

The covid-19 pandemics have exacerbated the issues of poverty in the country. South Africa has one of the highest infection rates in Africa and more recently has been dealing with a mutated version of the virus that has since been christened the South African variant. Lockdowns and covid 19 restrictions have pushed many out of employment, and businesses have been forced to shut down. Estimates indicate that close to 1million people may fall below the poverty line.

According to a World Bank Report , the inequality of apartheid lives on. The report indicates that inequality of opportunity is extremely high in the country. 

To compound issues, unemployment among youth stands at more than 50% , substantially higher than comparable countries.

South Africa’s economic issues run deeper. The economy is not growing enough to absorb its youth and reduce the trends in employment. Compounded by the lack of equal access to education and other services, the youth are not adequately set up for employment.  Part of the challenges stems from the inadequate capacity generated in the manufacturing industry. 

The manufacturing industry has grown no more than 1% from 2010 to 2018. Manufacturing jobs are usually low skills mass jobs that absorb a large portion of employable young people. As such, the lack of traction in the manufacturing sector has added to the employment woes that the country faces. 

While the manufacturing sector has not shown significant growth, the financial sector has shown considerable improvement. However, this sector is primarily a high-skill industry and cannot cater to meaningful employment.

This is given the fact that the bulk of this unemployed group consists of medium to low skilled employees. 

The employment statistics released by the countries statistics agency remained bleak. 

Statistics South Africa reported that the unemployment rate was at 32.5% in the last quarter of 2020. This means that up to 7.2 million people were out of employment. This figure was higher than the 30.8% reported in the second quarter of last year.

What are the leading causes of unemployment in South Africa? 

The country’s background and apartheid-induced inequality have created a legacy system of inequality. To date, black people in the country face an unemployment rate quadruple that of their white counterparts.

This can in part be attributed to the country’s legacy of apartheid that created a system of inequality that excluded black people from the education system. This gave rise to a perpetual vicious cycle in which this class of people has not been adequately reintegrated into the quality education segment. 

The inequality can also be in part a direct result of a failure to address the systemic issues of inequality plaguing the country. Some of the structural challenges include the high university fees, for example. The fee structure excludes a sizeable chunk of the population from receiving higher education. 

As the levels of education decrease, the unemployment levels rise significantly. 

Like the rest of Africa, South Africa also has a very young population. As such, more and more people flock into the labor market, which has no capacity to absorb large numbers. Coupled with the low education levels, this creates a large unskilled labor pool. 

Another factor contributing to unemployment is trade unionism. South Africa has an active trade union culture. Lobbying for higher wages, especially in an economy facing slow growth levels, may reduce new employment levels. 

It is important to note that reports have indicated some waves of xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals working within South Africa’s borders. It has been reported that some of these attacks have been linked to the dire unemployment situation, which has seen locals blame foreign nationals for taking their jobs. However, this situation wanes investor confidence even further, indirectly contributing to increased unemployment. 

How can stakeholders improve employment levels? 

An attempt to solve the urgent problem of unemployment involves addressing the education system. An adequately funded education system accessible to all regardless of background will help improve the young disadvantaged children’s skills.

Roping in private education institutions that provide high-quality, low-cost education, as is the case with institutions like Bridge International Schools in East Africa, can improve quality education. 

Further opening up the economy to encourage entrepreneurship through access to funding, government support, and promoting entrepreneurship within the education system may help open up the economy to allow for economic growth sufficient to cater to the ballooning population levels. 

An all stakeholder approach to addressing chronic inequality will help focus further towards improving equality as defined by socio-economic status to help open up access to opportunities. 

The fragile state of the economy

Going forward, there is a need to adapt to the new normal while seeking solutions to address the fragile state of the economy. According to the Bureau of Economic Research, the economy remains weak, as evidenced by a drop in business confidence. As businesses battle with the effects of covid 19, including dwindling demand, operational challenges, they continue to struggle to operate viably. 

As if to pour paraffin on an already burning situation, the looming threat of the coronavirus remains on the horizon. There has been a slow rollout of the vaccines, which has led to fear that gatherings and movement over the Easter season may become super-spreaders of the virus. The result would be a rise in the infection rate that may force the government’s hand to tighten lockdown restrictions once again. 

The start and stop cycle that businesses find themselves stuck in is of significant concern. The lack of certainty not only plummets investor confidence but also contributes to the unemployment issues. As long as businesses cannot find their footing, they remain hardpressed and can not create the employment level necessary to absorb the growing numbers of unemployed South Africans. 

In conclusion, the South African unemployment rate remains high. In the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, South Africa remains one of the continent’s highest affected countries and continues to grapple with finding solutions. 

The economy remains volatile. In unprecedented times like these, the unemployment issues in South Africa remain highly problematic. 

Read also: Unemployed and underprivileged hit hardest by S.Africa’s declining GDP

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Ramaphosa addresses South Africa’s unemployment in nation address

As the country faces one of highest jobless rates globally, South African president pledges ‘to leave no one behind’.

Cape Town, South Africa – President Cyril Ramaphosa has pledged “to leave no one behind” in addressing the country’s high unemployment rate in his sixth State of the Nation Address.

The yearly speech took place on Thursday at Cape Town City Hall, instead of the usual location of Parliament, for the first time in its history.

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The venue changed after a fire on January 2 gutted the Parliament building, causing the roof of the New Wing housing the lower chamber National Assembly to collapse. A 49-year-old man has been charged in connection with the fire.

Africa’s most industrialised nation has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. As of the third quarter of 2021, the latest data available, it had a 34.9 percent unemployment rate.

In his speech, Ramaphosa acknowledged the country needed “fundamental change and reforms” to revive its economic growth.

“COVID-19 has exacerbated the divide between those who are employed and those who are unemployed. Last year our unemployment rate reached its highest recorded level,” he said.

The president said the problems with the South African economy were both “deep” and “structural”.

“Where electricity supply cannot be guaranteed, when our railways and ports are inefficient, when innovation is held back by a scarcity of broadband spectrum, water quality deteriorates in our municipalities and where we live. Companies are reluctant to invest and the economy cannot function properly.”

To address this, the African National Congress (ANC) leader promised “far-reaching structural reforms” that will modernise industries to unlock investment, grow the economy and create jobs.

“We know, however, that even with the best business environment and much faster rates of economic growth, it will take time for the private sector to create enough jobs for the millions of South Africans who need them. Our intent is to leave no one behind,” he said.

He pledged to create better livelihoods by prioritising infrastructure projects in energy, roads and water management.

Ramaphosa also said South Africa’s transition into a green economy would create jobs in mining minerals that help provide clean energy, as well as green hydrogen, solar and wind.

The country’s global business services sector is on track to create 500,000 new jobs over the next few years, Ramaphosa added.

He also touted the country’s growing hemp and cannabis sector, which he said could create more than 130,000 new jobs.

The wide-ranging speech that lasted nearly two hours saw the president addressing areas from gender-based violence to state corruption. A shadow hanging over the ANC is the State Capture inquiry into corruption and fraud in the public sector, including in former president Jacob Zuma’s government.

The Zondo Commission was launched in 2018 to look into the allegations, and the inquiry published the first two out of three reports into the scandal in January and February.

“While the definitive conclusion has yet to be delivered and will be at the end of this month, the first two parts of the report make it plain that there was indeed state capture. This means that public institutions and state-owned enterprises were infiltrated by a criminal network intent on looting public money for private gain,” Ramaphosa said.

“We must now do everything in our power to ensure it never happens again,” he added.

Ramaphosa said he would present a plan of action by June to respond to the commission’s recommendations and he pledged to bring the criminals involved to justice.

South Africa saw its economy ravaged by deadly riots last year that swept across Gauteng and the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, causing more than 25 billion rand ($1.7bn) worth of damage and killing 337 South Africans. Some private security companies were found to be involved in the unrest.

Ramaphosa said he would be making several leadership changes in a number of security agencies to strengthen the country’s security structures and take heed of the recent report into the riots, which concluded there was poor coordination between the state security and intelligence services.

‘Very significant shift’

South African political analyst Daniel Silke told Al Jazeera in his speech Ramaphosa identified core areas in business and governance “that require attention”, but whether they can be implemented is another question.

“The big hope certainly from an economic point of view this year is that the government does open its doors a lot more to the private sector,” he said.

“Now what was emphasised in the first part of the speech was this very issue and in fact, Ramaphosa emphasised correctly – that now is the time ultimately for the private [sector] to drive job creation.”

Silke said the speech marked “a very significant shift” from the ANC’s previous stance, because it acknowledged the party’s “failure of the state-centred approach to business” and was more welcoming of the private sector.

Bianca Chigbu, a lecturer and economic sociologist at the University of Fort Hare, was more sceptical.

“As Ramaphosa said, businesses create jobs but we know that such businesses prefer cheap labour and, therefore, will employ immigrants due to their willingness to accept lower wages. Their idea of leaving the responsibility of job creation in the hands of businesses will be futile and the locals will be disadvantaged,” Chigbu told Al Jazeera.

To reduce South Africa’s unemployment, make work more attractive

Jacques morisset.

Originally published by  Brookings and Business Day (South Africa) October 13 and 10, 2023

At over 30%, unemployment is South Africa’s biggest contemporary challenge. Of course, there are diverse reasons behind the incapacity of the South African economy to provide sufficient jobs for its working population but allow me to focus on one: limited financial incentives for a poor South African to look for employment. The key question in South Africa is not why people are unemployed, but rather why they should work.

The financial incentives to work are low

To answer this question, I simply calculate how much money a typical South African worker (Dumisani) entering the formal labour market is expected to bring home in comparison with a Vietnamese worker (Dung). In our example, let us focus on taxes and transport costs (Figure 1). This comparison demonstrates that a low-income worker in South Africa has realistically few incentives to work or at least much less than a worker in Vietnam, a country with rapid job growth.

For the same gross salary, a low-income South African worker will get less than half the money in his pocket than a Vietnamese worker

For the same gross salary of $1,000 per month (approximately R19 140), Dumisani keeps in his pocket less than half of the money that Dung would because of higher taxes and transport costs. Unfortunately, Dumisani is not an exception as the personal income tax is set at 18 % for those earning up to about $1000 per month in South Africa, while it is only 5% (up to $215 / R4115), 10 % (between $215 and $430 / R4115 and R8231), and 15% (between $430 and $760; R8231 and R14548) in Vietnam. The personal allowance, which can be deduced from the tax payment for a single worker, is also slightly lower in South Africa ($400 vs $475; R7657 vs R9093). Other East Asian countries, like Indonesia and Malaysia , also have personal income taxes with lower entry rates than South Africa.

South African workers like Dumisani are also heavily penalized by transport costs due to long commutes between townships and industrial/businesses centers, as a result of the legacy of Apartheid era spatial planning. Two economists from the Harvard Growth Lab ( Shah and Sturzenegger ) estimate that the average transport costs for those who are employed in South Africa is equal to 57% of net wages when time to commute is accounted for. According to their calculations, transport costs could exceed 80 percent for the lowest quintile of workers.  In Vietnam, the same cost is estimated at only 10% of net wages because of shorter distances and more competitive modes of transport, including motorcycles.

In his decision to work, Dumisani will consider not only how much he will earn but also the amount of money that he could have expected from the government if he was not working. Like many low-income families, he or a member of his household would have qualified for a form of social transfers (grants/subsidies) distributed by the government. Today, it is estimated that over half of households are receiving money in one form or another from the State in South Africa. When becoming active in the labour market, Dumisani could lose some of these social benefits, including the unemployment insurance, the unallocated grants for low-income households (e.g., the COVID-grant), and the provision of free public services (electricity, water) to “indigent” households. By contrast, Dung is unlikely to receive any transfers from the government as social support in Vietnam is limited to few specific groups (war heroes, people living with disabilities).

Changing the relative price of work

Boosting employment could be achieved by changing the relative returns to a worker between being active or inactive in the labour market. My argument is this can be implemented by three policy changes or strokes of the pen that mainly require political consensus, not additional money.

• The Minister of Finance could initiate the first policy change. He can lower the entry tax rate of the personal income tax from 18% to, say, 5% or increase the threshold at which a citizen starts to pay the personal income tax. This is the East Asian model described above. While the benefit of this action is evident for low-income workers (they will take home more money), the costs will be minimal to the government as South Africa’s top decile contributes almost 80% of the personal income tax’s revenue .
• The second policy change, which may be more bolder and require concerted political will, would be for the authorities to modify existing social transfers to encourage poor workers to enter the labour market, including through reduced transport costs. A suggestion would be to replace (at least partially and for those ready to engage in work) the Social Relief Distress grant (about US$18.5 / R350per month), which was introduced as a temporary protective measure during COVID-19, by a direct subsidy that will help low-income workers keep more money in their pockets. The authorities could distribute a voucher through a phone application or an electronic card that beneficiaries will use to cover part of their commute costs. The amount of the subsidy could be adjusted to make the reform revenue neutral for the government.
• The third policy change will be to facilitate additional job opportunities closer to the homes of low-income workers – automatically reducing transport costs. This could be achieved by making it easier for existing small businesses to grow and operate, and for new ones to get started. Ecuador, for example, recently introduced a new type of company modality, (“ Simplified Corporation Form ”) available on a digital platform, leading to the creation of 43,000 companies in less than three years. Of course, the development of (small and micro) enterprises and self-employment – the main source of jobs in underserved areas--requires additional measures such as improvement in infrastructure, better access to finance, and skills, but this could be a starting point. This simple administrative change could be accompanied by targeted financial support and training programs as implemented in many low- and middle-income countries with extensive positive impact evaluation evidence.

Longer-term measures are needed to further enhance the mobility of poor workers

These short-term solutions can be attractive because they will encourage poor people to look for jobs and self-employment opportunities by making the relative price of labour more attractive in South Africa. They will also send an immediate signal about the government’s willingness to help disadvantaged workers to get more money in their pockets. However, in the longer run, the country’s ability to generate jobs will be largely determined by workers’ mobility, especially in urban areas where three-quarters of the labour force is concentrated today. The overhaul of the urban public transport systems, which are notoriously unreliable, unsafe and largely unregulated in the case of the taxi industry; and the development of new housing communities closer to industrial and business centers, will therefore have to be in the mind of every policymaker who wants to address the unemployment challenge in South Africa.

• South Africa

Lead Economist and Program Leader, World Bank

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Tuesday, 25 June

30 Oct 2023

FULL SPEECH | 'Like the Springboks, we have the determination to overcome any challenge' - Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa said the Springboks World Cup victory rightfully calls for a moment to celebrate as he reflected on the country's economic recovery. Read his full speech.

Fellow South Africans, On Saturday night, South Africans watched with pride and joy as our national rugby team, the Springboks, became the world champions for the fourth time since the advent of democracy in our country.

As we all watched their progress towards the championship, we marvelled at their resilience and determination to overcome some of the best teams in the rugby world.

At moments when their cause seemed lost, they fought back and they emerged victorious. This victory rightfully calls for a moment of national recognition and celebration of our rugby players and their achievements.

We should also applaud our cricket team who have been performing well in the Cricket World Cup. I spoke to the Proteas captain Temba Bavuma and encouraged them to remain focused and told him that the entire nation supports and stands behind them. I also told him that I intend to travel to Mumbai in India to watch them play in the finals.

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As we confront the many severe challenges in our country, we draw hope and encouragement from the determination and the performance the Springboks and the Proteas have displayed.

The victory by the Springboks and the performance of the Proteas follows the victory of Banyana Banyana in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations and their progress to the knockout stages of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Our spirits were similarly lifted by the achievements of our national squad at the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin in June.

As a people, we have shown before what is possible when we are united, when we are determined, when we try hard and when we refuse to give up.

Together, we overcame apartheid, ended centuries of conflict and gave birth to a thriving democracy. Together, we confronted and overcame the deadliest global pandemic in over a century.

We are indeed stronger together. As we reflect on these great achievements on the sporting field we also need to reflect on our economic recovery and the further steps that we are taking to revive economic growth and improve the lives of our people.

As the latest census figures show, we have achieved great feats of human development since the beginning of democracy.

Millions of South Africans have been raised out of poverty and now have housing and access to electricity, water, sanitation and other basic needs. Access to health care and education have been greatly expanded.

Much more still needs to be done to make more progress. Even over the last 10 years, we have been able to make significant strides. For example, the percentage of households in formal dwellings rose from 78 percent in 2011 to 89 percent in 2022. This is evidence of concrete progress, and should give us encouragement as we confront the challenges of the present.

This month, we mark three years since we embarked on the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, which outlined the actions that we would take to rebuild our economy and create jobs in the wake of the pandemic.

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This recovery plan was accepted by many stakeholders in our country and is underpinned by our National Development Plan. The last three years have been extremely challenging. We are emerging from more than a decade of stagnant economic growth, compounded by the impact of the pandemic.

We are working to reverse the legacy of the past era of corruption and mismanagement of our state owned enterprises, which has left us with a persistent energy crisis and an inefficient ports and rail network. And we are contending with a range of global and domestic pressures which have set back our economic recovery.

And yet, there are clear signs that our efforts are showing results. Electricity supply is improving. Jobs are being created. Houses, roads, bridges and dams are under construction. Law enforcement agencies are cracking down on criminal syndicates. The proceeds of state capture are being recovered. These are reasons for hope.

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, we put in place decisive public health interventions that saved many lives. To deal with negative economic effects of the pandemic, which resulted in the loss of more than 2 million jobs, we put in place an unprecedented stimulus package that lessened the damage to the economy. Since then, in the midst of severe load shedding and increased global volatility, the economy has continued growing, albeit too slowly.

The economy has shown a significant degree of resilience and is now larger than it was before the pandemic.

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Over the last two years, the number of people with jobs has increased by two million, bringing the level of employment close to its pre-pandemic level. A key element of the reconstruction and recovery plan was to expand social protection and public employment.

The special SRD Grant known as the R350 grant, which we introduced in 2020, has kept millions of people out of poverty, and continues to provide much-needed support for those who are unemployed.

The Presidential Employment Stimulus has created over 1.2 million opportunities since its establishment, representing the largest expansion of public employment in South Africa’s history.

Over 4 million young people have registered on the SAYouth online platform, and more than 1 million of these have been able to access opportunities for learning and earning. Every one of those jobs created is a reason for hope. Every person who no longer lives in poverty is a reason for hope.

Another commitment we made in the Reconstruction and Recovery Plan was to fix South Africa’s infrastructure through renewed investment in maintenance and construction of new projects. Several significant infrastructure projects are underway.

These projects are both contributing to greater economic activity and jobs, and providing much-needed infrastructure for the growth of our economy and the needs of our people. These infrastructure projects range from social housing, road construction, rural bridges, and dam constructions.

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa has to date restored operations on 26 out of 40 commuter rail corridors. To continue with the restoration of our commuter rail corridors, R50 billion will be spent over the next three years to modernise our passenger rail network. As part of our infrastructure build we are undertaking significant water infrastructure projects.

These include Phase II of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, The Mzimvubu water project in the Eastern Cape will involve an investment of R17 billion. Around the country, water treatment works are being upgraded, pumping stations are being repaired, and pipes are being laid to get water to under-serviced areas. We are making progress towards ending load shedding.

The Energy Action Plan that I announced in July last year is showing positive results, giving us greater confidence that we will bring load shedding to an end. Regulatory reforms we have initiated have enabled a massive increase in private investment in electricity generation, with over 12 000 MW of confirmed projects in development. Following the introduction of tax incentives and financing mechanisms, the amount of installed rooftop solar has more than doubled to over 4 500 MW in the last year.

The steady progress we are making in resolving the energy crisis is a reason for hope. We are making progress in restoring our logistics system to world-class standards, so that we can export South African goods to global markets. The National Logistics Crisis Committee is overseeing a range of interventions to stabilise and improve the performance of the logistics system in the short term, in addition to ongoing reform to improve its efficiency and competitiveness in the long term.

The Transnet board has developed a turnaround plan which aims to increase volumes transported on our network. Progress is also being made with the introduction of private sector participation in container terminals.

I want to make it clear that South Africa’s port, rail and electricity infrastructure are strategic national assets, and that they will remain in public ownership. However, introducing competition in operations – both in electricity and in logistics – will create greater efficiency and reduce prices in the long term, just as the introduction of competition in the telecommunications sector has led to greater choice and enormous benefits for consumers.

We are also making progress in tackling crime and corruption.

The South African Police Service has established 20 Economic Infrastructure Task Teams throughout the country to protect critical infrastructure and tackle the “construction mafia.”

“The South African Police Service has established 20 Economic Infrastructure Task Teams throughout the country to protect critical infrastructure and tackle the ‘construction mafia’. We are seeing results in arrests for illegal mining, cash-in-transit hikes, cable theft, drug… pic.twitter.com/McqpYcIcBV — Presidency | South Africa ???? (@PresidencyZA) October 30, 2023

We are seeing results in arrests for illegal mining, cash-in-transit hikes, cable theft, drug smuggling and similar crimes. Increasing the number of police men and women will further strengthen our capacity to curb acts of criminality. I have also extended the employment of 880 members of the SANDF to support the police in combating criminal activity that targets critical economic infrastructure. The police have arrested several people for extortion at construction sites and made over 3 000 arrests for illegal mining.

Through the intensive efforts of our law enforcement agencies, dozens of illegal mines, unregulated coal yards and unregistered second hand dealers have been shut down.

The Economic Infrastructure Task Teams have confiscated significant quantities of copper cable, rail tracks, coal and other metals. Every arrest made and every length of cable recovered is a reason for hope.

We are making progress in the fight against corruption, including bringing those responsible for state capture to justice. Over the last four years, the NPA Investigating Directorate has taken 34 state capture and corruption cases to court, involving 205 accused persons.

Freezing orders of R14 billion have now been granted to the Asset Forfeiture Unit for state capture related cases. Around R5.4 billion has to date been recovered and returned to the state.

“The achievement of sustained and inclusive growth requires a stable macroeconomic environment. A sustainable fiscal trajectory is a precondition for growth. We therefore remain absolutely committed to stabilising our levels of debt and adopting a responsible fiscal policy.”… pic.twitter.com/KabbNp2OV0 — Presidency | South Africa ???? (@PresidencyZA) October 30, 2023

As recommended by the State Capture Commission, we are putting in place laws, institutions and practices that reduce the potential for corruption of any sort and on any scale. We are continuing to build meaningful compacts with key stakeholders in a number of areas.

To support our efforts of enhancing collaboration, we have established a partnership with business to work together in four critical areas – energy, logistics, crime and corruption, and employment. We continue to collaborate with organised labour and civil society to ensure a whole-of-society approach to addressing the most important challenges our country faces.

All of this gives us hope that we are turning the tide on the many challenges that we face. Our economic challenges are severe. Despite the progress we are making, poverty, inequality and unemployment remain high.

We continue to face domestic and global pressures, and our economy is growing too slowly for us to overcome the challenges facing our country. Load shedding has constrained economic growth. The underperformance of the ports and rail network is affecting our ability to get exports to market.

Government spending has exceeded revenue since the 2008 global financial crisis, without a commensurate increase in economic growth. As the Minister of Finance has noted, for every rand that government collects in revenue, 18 cents go towards servicing our national debt.

This means that we are now paying more in interest on our national debt than we are budgeting for the police force. Ultimately, more rapid and inclusive growth is the only solution to unemployment, poverty and inequality.

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Growth is also necessary for the sustainability of public finances. Building on the progress we have already made, government will accelerate the implementation of economic reforms over the next six months.

To address the weaknesses in many of our municipalities, we are undertaking interventions in local government. As national government, we are driving a number of interventions to support a rapid turn-around in local government services such as water and sanitation, electricity, roads and waste collection.

These interventions are accelerating service delivery where basic services have collapsed. While addressing the immediate problems, we are introducing necessary institutional reforms and professionalisation in the appointment of senior municipal officials. The achievement of sustained and inclusive growth requires a stable macroeconomic environment.

A sustainable fiscal trajectory is a precondition for growth. We therefore remain absolutely committed to stabilising our levels of debt and adopting a responsible fiscal policy. The Minister of Finance will set out government’s plans to achieve this trajectory in the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement on Wednesday.

Spending on health, education, policing, and other essential services will be protected as far as possible. As we move to target spending on programmes that are working for the poor, we need to acknowledge that our social grants, including the SRD Grant, as well as our public employment programmes, are vital in supporting those who are vulnerable.

These programmes have not only reduced poverty, but have enabled recipients to search for jobs and to engage in other economic activity to support their livelihoods. The Minister of Finance will provide more details of these and other spending priorities when he presents the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement on Wednesday.

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Today marks the start of the 2023 National Senior Certificate exams for close on one million learners. Over the next weeks, our learners will prove the value of hard work, dedication and the investment that we have made as a nation in the education of our young people. We wish them the very best, confident that they will make the country proud.

There are many reasons for hope. We have made significant progress in reforming our economy to make it more inclusive and to achieve a higher rate of growth. We are on track to resolve the most important constraints on economic growth by stabilising our energy supply and fixing our logistics network.

The reforms underway will propel economic growth in South Africa in the years to come, resulting in a stable supply of electricity, a working railway, and more jobs for all South Africans.

On our way to rebuilding our economy there are a number of strengths that stand us in good stead. We have a strong and sophisticated financial sector, a strong and effective civil society, a functional democracy, an independent judiciary, a stable macroeconomic framework underpinned by a capable National Treasury and an independent Reserve Bank.

We have collectively embarked on a journey of economic reform which will set our country on a path to higher growth and more jobs. The concerted efforts of all South Africans are starting to show results in many areas. If we take a short term view of our current challenges, we may not see the transformation that is underway or the benefits that these reforms will have for our country.

Our victorious Springboks will return home tomorrow. We will welcome them with great joy and jubilation. They will conduct a victory tour around the country and I will receive them at the Union Buildings later this week. I want us to now rally behind the Proteas in the same way as we have given our support to the Springboks. I want us all to embark on a period of celebration culminating in a celebratory holiday after our matriculants have finished their exams and the Proteas have done the country proud at the Cricket World Cup.

I know that many of us want us to have a holiday now to celebrate. But we should all agree that we should give our matriculants time to focus on their exams and celebrate afterwards. In celebration of the Springboks’ momentous achievement and the achievements of all our other sports men and women – and as a tribute to the resolve of our united nation.

“I know that many of us want us to have a holiday now to celebrate. But we should all agree that we should give our matriculants time to focus on their exams and celebrate afterwards. In celebration of the Springboks’ momentous achievement and the achievements of all our other… pic.twitter.com/hO13DupL91 — Presidency | South Africa ???? (@PresidencyZA) October 30, 2023

I am declaring Friday the 15th of December 2023 as a public holiday. We declare this to be a day of hope, a day of celebration and unity. Our sports men and women have shown us what is possible. We will succeed and we will ensure that we leave no-one behind.

I thank you

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The State of Youth Unemployment in South Africa

Subscribe to africa in focus, aalia cassim and ac aalia cassim researcher, development policy research unit, university of cape town morné oosthuizen mo morné oosthuizen deputy director, development policy research unit.

August 15, 2014

• 13 min read

Youth unemployment has been inordinately high for many years in South Africa and is one of the country’s major socio-economic challenges. [1] Cross-country comparisons regularly affirm that South Africa’s unemployment rates are among the highest in the world. In 2013, the youth unemployment rate was 63 percent of the youth labor force (3.2 million individuals) according to the expanded definition of unemployment, which includes as unemployed those who are not actively looking for a job (i.e., the non-searching unemployed, or “discouraged work-seekers”). Youth unemployment is high, even in comparison with South Africa’s very high average unemployment rate of 34 percent. (By international comparison, while the ratio of youth to adult unemployment is fairly similar for other countries that are economically comparable to South Africa, the overall unemployment rate is far higher than in other emerging markets.) [2] Of the 10.2 million individuals aged between 15 to 24 years, one-third are not in employment, [3] education or training (and are often referred to as “NEETs”). Roughly 30 percent of male youth and 36 percent of female youth are NEETs, disconnected from both the labor market and opportunities that promote future employability.

Unemployed youth are characterized by their lack of employability resulting from a range of socio-economic factors. They often have low levels of education, have dropped out of school and invariably do not have the literacy, numeracy and communication skills needed in the labor market. They also have little work experience, which is a particularly undesirable characteristic for employers. These young people lack strong networks or social capital that allow them to source job opportunities, and tend not to have sufficient financial resources to enable mobility to areas where there is demand for labor. Of those who do have resources available as a result of their family support or network, they often have unrealistically high reservation wages, thereby resulting in relatively long periods of unsuccessful searching (Mlatsheni, 2007; Von Fintel and Black, 2007; Rankin and Roberts, 2011; Roberts, 2011). These socio-economic factors have resulted in a gap between productivity and entry-level wages for young workers, which is a constraint on job creation.

Persistently high unemployment suggests a lack of effective policy interventions. To date, policies that have been implemented have largely been supply-side initiatives aimed at the structural causes of youth unemployment. These include targeting the formal education system, post-school training, public employment and deployment programs, entrepreneurship interventions and an attempt at job placement programs. From the demand side, an employment subsidy has been recently proposed by the National Treasury to incentivize employers to hire young people.

Supply-Side Policies Targeting Unemployed Youth

Challenges within the South African education system are key structural issues underlying youth unemployment. In short, school-leavers do not exit the system with the requisite skills demanded by the labor market. For this reason, a number of funding and policy interventions are aimed at improving the education system such that it would raise youth employment prospects. In the National Treasury’s budget for the 2013/14 fiscal year, education spending increased to 232.5 billion rand (R) ($21.8 billion), targeting infrastructure, services and the backlog in numeracy and literacy skills. However, there are large cohorts of young people that have already been impacted by weaknesses in the education system. This group of early school-leavers, dropouts and unemployed high school diploma-holders requires interventions tailored to their particular needs and characteristics if they are to be fully able to participate in the economy.

A number of skills and training programs have been set up through various publicly funded technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions with the aim of facilitating entry into the labor market. These institutions—known in South Africa as further education and training colleges (FET)—have been unable to ramp up capacity and provide the types of training required by the economy. TVET institutions primarily provide vocational education programs, but these do not necessarily meet the skills—such as completing a school qualification or training in a particular non-vocational skill—demanded by youth. TVET institutions are also not always easily accessible in terms of location or financing, as there seems to be less financial support than is available for tertiary education. Furthermore, partnerships between TVET institutions (and other educational institutions) and employers are weak, demonstrated by the falling number of apprenticeships [4] offered in recent years after graduation.

The trajectory of labor demand in the South African economy favors skilled workers and, in light of the limited job opportunities available for low skilled workers, the government has implemented publicly funded programs that offer (i) employment in the provision of essential basic services to vulnerable South Africans; and (ii) deployment in programs that can provide income while additional skills are developed, thereby improving future employability .

The Community Works Program (CWP) was rolled out in 2008 and is designed as an employment safety net whereby a person’s existing livelihood is supplemented by offering a basic level of income through work. The program is a direct replica model of India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) program. This program has been used in the poorest communities and complements the social grant system. Communities play a central role in determining the types of work created through this program by deciding what activities would benefit them most. This program was extended to the Extended Public Works Program (EPWP). While these programs are not geared directly to youth employment, the EPWP reported that 57 percent of CWP participants in 2010/11 were under the age of 35 years (Department of Cooperative Governance, 2011:2). [5] However, these programs have been found to be less attractive to youth because they are not tailored to youth aspirations. Further, this type of work experience, which includes repairing community or school infrastructure, creating food gardens or home-based care, often does not lead to better paying jobs in the labor market, particularly those in urban areas.

Public deployment programs have only been implemented in South Africa to a limited extent through the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), which targets unemployed youth and the unskilled. The NYDA ran a 12-month program that trained young people, providing them with qualification credits in fields, such as construction or enterprise development, where labor demand was stronger. While the NYDA annual report presents evidence of meeting their targets for the 2012/13 financial year, these targets were set particularly low: For example, they set a target of 800 job placements (just over 3,000 were actually created).

The National Rural Youth Service Corps, targeting rural youth, was implemented in September 2010. The intervention comprised a comprehensive two-year skills and incubation program after which participants would be involved in community development projects and be paid by government for their services. Training was conducted in numeracy, literacy, construction and entrepreneurship skills relevant to community development. This, it was hoped, would stimulate the rural economy. While this project was seen to be somewhat successful, there was an oversight on the part of the program coordinators who underestimated the amount of training required for youth to actually take on the community projects. The project will, however, continue to run into its second phase in the near future. Future iterations of this program should work toward scaling up the training that facilitated employment in the previous round.  

There have also been policy attempts at targeting youth entrepreneurship. The NYDA in particular plays a role in funding and facilitating youth cooperatives and provides training and support to youth entrepreneurs. These services are, however, not well targeted with very few young people accessing the services offered . Often interventions such as these are not pitched at the correct level or are offered to a community that does not demand these skills.

Apart from programs targeted specifically at young people, unemployed youth also benefit from general programs, given that they constitute the majority of the unemployed. One such example is the system of sector education and training authorities (SETA), which play a pivotal role in skills development in South Africa. Of particular relevance to young people is the learnership program, which allows the achievement of a nationally recognized qualification through a combination of structured learning and practical work experience. Learnerships involve individuals being placed within workplaces and are open to both students and the unemployed. Another example of a general program that benefits youth employment is the Department of Trade and Industry’s small business support programs.

The Department of Labor also aims to create an enabling environment for job creation through regulation. The Employment Services Act was passed in April 2014. The purpose of this legislation is essentially to promote employment, to improve the prospects of those looking for work by training and to facilitate job matching. In terms of youth, it aims to provide specialized services to access work with government requiring registration of job seekers as well as job vacancies and other placement opportunities and acting as an intermediary. Given very high cellular telephony penetration rates in the South African market, there seems to be extensive scope to explore available technologies to improve the accessibility—and, indeed, the evaluation—of such services.

South Africa’s Jobs Fund represents a significant intervention aimed at reducing unemployment generally. Launched in mid-2011 by the South African minister of finance in response to the loss of more than one million jobs in the wake of the global recession, this is the world’s largest challenge fund, with projects selected for funding through competitive processes with particular criteria relating to eligibility and impact. The fund provides public funding in four areas: enterprise development, infrastructure investment, support for job seekers and institutional capacity. The fund has created nearly 100,000 jobs at a cost of R63,000 (roughly $6,300) per job.

Demand-Side Policies Targeting Employers

In 2011, the National Treasury suggested that the high rate of youth unemployment was a result of insufficient demand within the labor market to meet the rising number of young job seekers entering each year. It is within this context of weak labor demand that the option of a youth employment subsidy has been proposed. Employment subsidies are appealing because they target job creation instead of indirectly incentivizing the absorption of youth into the labor market. They also offset the cost of employment and training of new workers for employers. Treasury is in favor of an employment subsidy as it operates through the tax system and can rapidly reach a scale that cannot necessarily be achieved through employment or deployment programs such as those discussed above. In terms of the proposal, employers who employ youth will be subsidized for two years, with a larger proportion of wages being subsidized in the first year.

Piloting of this type of initiative has yielded favorable results. Commissioned by National Treasury, the African Microeconomic Research Umbrella at the University of the Witwatersrand ran a pilot study with 4,000 participants from three provinces (Gauteng, Kwazulu-Natal and Limpopo). In terms of the experiment, half of the sample was given vouchers to cover up to 50 percent of their wage for six months and the rest of the sample group was given nothing. The key finding was that job seekers that had received vouchers showed a higher inclination to stay in a job, even after two years, thereby showing the positive impact of the voucher even after it had lapsed.

Unemployed youth differ widely in terms of demographic, locational and educational attainment characteristics, and it is a concern that the subsidy may not be inclusive in terms of targeting the youth (Yu, 2011: 16). Broadly, though, there are two key youth subgroups: First, those who are better off, have more work experience and are normally actively looking for a job; and, second, those who are located in poorer provinces, are less mobile, are more likely to have a lower level of education and who have no work experience. The latter group includes normally discouraged work seekers. There is concern as to whether the subsidy will actually encourage discouraged work seekers to actively look for a job and, furthermore, and whether this group would become any more attractive to employers. This policy will obviously have to work in conjunction with sector employment projects, training institutions and financial support for further education programs to have a wider scope in terms of the youth that will be targeted.

The South African government has implemented a number of initiatives aimed at creating jobs and reducing unemployment, as well as ameliorating the impact of high unemployment on individuals and their households. The past 20 years has seen a significant expansion of the existing social grants system that, while not specifically targeting the unemployed, has helped reduce poverty among households impacted by unemployment. Thus, by mid-2013, nearly 16.2 million social grants of various types were being paid by government on a monthly basis, equivalent to over 30 percent of the country’s population. Further, there is some evidence that social grants have helped facilitate job search among unemployed household members.

There is general recognition, though, that government alone cannot resolve the unemployment crisis. As a result, there are now a significant number of ongoing interventions spearheaded by organizations in the non-governmental and non-profit spheres. These interventions range from small business support, to youth training, to the provision of bursaries for education and training, to facilitating the matching process between job seekers and employers.

In summary, there are certainly concerns around South Africa’s youth unemployment policy interventions in terms of design, targeting and ability to adequately address the needs of young labor market entrants as well as employers. Perhaps the key constraint in generating impact has been scalability, as many interventions have been too small or too localized to impact aggregate unemployment rates. An important lesson is that supply-side initiatives addressing structural issues are insufficient on their own to generate sufficient new jobs. Instead, these interventions should interface closely with demand-side incentive programs. There are, also, political economy constraints that need to be resolved. For example, the generalized lack of jobs results in resistance to certain interventions on the part of those who view them as a zero-sum game between the youth and older workers.

Note : Morné Oosthuizen is the deputy director of the Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU) at the University of Cape Town. DPRU is one of the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative’s six local think tank partners based in Africa. This blog reflects the views of the author only and does not reflect the views of the Africa Growth Initiative.

[1] Youth are defined by the International Labor Organization as individuals between the ages of 15 to 24 years. It is important to note, however, that South Africa utilizes a broader definition, covering individuals between the ages of 15 and 34 years, and its youth-targeting policies focus on this broader age group. However, for the sake of comparison, we use the international definition unless otherwise stated.

[2] The National Treasury (2011) used the ILO and QLFS 2010 to make this assertion for the 18-29 age cohort. The ratio of youth to adult unemployment in Africa is about 2.5 (i.e., the youth unemployment rate is two and half times larger than the adult unemployment rate), and cross-country comparisons indicate that this is broadly in line with other emerging markets such as Morocco, Mexico and Chile. South Africa was an outlier in terms of the magnitude of the unemployment rate. It was just under 40 percent while other emerging markets varied between 10 percent and 30 percent.

[3] Youths “not in employment” are not considered members of the youth labor force because they are not economically active.

[4] Between 2008 and 2009, the number of apprentices declined 25 percent from 12,000 to 9,000 placements (Janse et al. 2012:45).

[5] Department of Cooperative Governance (2011). Communities at Work: Community Work Program 2010/2011 . Pretoria: Department of Cooperative Governance.

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Home » News » South Africa » Politics

By Siyanda Ndlovu

4 minute read

16 Feb 2022

‘Unemployment, state of SA’s economy gives me sleepless nights’ – Ramaphosa

'it concerns me a great deal," the president says..

President Cyril Ramaphosa says unemployment and the poor state of South Africa’s economy is giving him “a torrid time”.

Ramaphosa said this in a Q&A session with journalists on Wednesday just after responding to the opposition’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) debate.

“What keeps me awake at night, and I am seriously kept awake, it is the state of our economy that keeps me awake, state of unemployment. It is very difficult to countenance 11 million people out of work who are not economically engaged in any activity.

“That is enough to keep me awake at night and it concerns me a great deal,” the president said.

Ramaphosa’s Sona last week was largely focused on the measures the government was taking to enable faster economic growth and the creation of employment.

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He said that this was because “fixing the economy is our most pressing challenge at this moment, and is essential to progress in almost every other area of life.

“Our focus on the economy does not, however, diminish the importance of the many other areas of government’s work.

“Many of these issues have been raised in the debate and will be dealt with in greater detail in upcoming budget votes and public engagements by ministers.”

While the Sona focused on growth and employment, millions of South Africans face the immediate challenge of feeding themselves and their families.

It is estimated that food poverty affects some 5.5 million households.

Gatvol South Africans slate Sona on social media

Ramaphosa said that without monthly grants for children, the elderly and persons with disabilities, many people in South Africa would face destitution.

“We know that grants have provided an effective system for income redistribution and poverty alleviation, in a society with unacceptable levels of inequality.

“Given the scale of unemployment and the impact of the pandemic, the interventions we are undertaking to create jobs will take many years to reach all 11 million South Africans who are unemployed.”

He said this were some among other reasons that the government took a decision to extend the R350 Covid-19 grant to March next year.

READ MORE: Ramaphosa’s Sona is not a blueprint but a wish list, says Buthelezi

“We are extending for another year precisely to reach these people and to stave off hunger. We are doing this within a fiscal environment that has been badly worsened by the pandemic.

“We need to do so while making sure that we do not further weaken our macroeconomic position and that we do not allow our debt service costs to further crowd out social spending.

“As a country, we nevertheless need to fill the gap in social protection to achieve a minimum level of support for those who cannot find work.”

Ramaphosa said that finding a sustainable, affordable and effective solution must be one of the central pillars of the renewed social compact that the government has undertaken to build.

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Impact of unemployment on communities in South Africa

Published on

What is the impact of the high rates of unemployment on certain communities dealing with joblessness, and how does this affect currently employed individuals?

Unemployment is one of South Africa’s biggest challenges and the current state of the economy is not making it any easier to combat this societal issue.

The unemployment rate continues to rise by significant numbers, affecting mostly the youth who remain under strain trying to secure jobs.

Unemployment not only affects citizens who are struggling to find a place in the labour force, but it also affects communities and our society at large.

So, how exactly are South African communities affected by unemployment and what does this mean for them and for society?

Unemployment in South African communities

It is without a doubt that being unemployed can affect individuals in more ways than one. It can play on their psychological and emotional state, potentially affecting the way they view themselves, and often resulting in self-condemnation or feelings of inadequacy and worthlessness.

However, unemployment also affects the broader communities dealing with high levels of unemployment .

You will often find that these communities are dealing with a lack of fundamentals like basic services, and poverty will be rife where unemployment thrives.

Impact of unemployment on the community in South Africa

Unemployment in South Africa has vastly detrimental effects on the people who cannot find jobs, but it also does great harm to communities.

In communities that have high unemployment numbers, you will find that poverty is thriving.

This is due to the fact that these communities not only probably have a scarcity of resources, but are communities with inefficient economic systems where inequality is most likely also rife.

When a community is drowning in unemployment, there is more likely to be scarce employment opportunities, low quality housing, and a lack of access to basic services as a part of human rights, which takes away the human dignity of these people in these communities.

Basically, high unemployment leads to higher levels of poverty in communities.

What are some psychological effects of unemployment?

Unemployment can be damaging psychologically to individuals who are unemployed. Human beings will respond in certain ways to dealing with being unemployed.

The psychological impacts of unemployment can very easily go unnoticed, but they are just as important. One major psychological effect of unemployment is mental illness.

Unemployed individuals are more at risk of developing mental illnesses, which could lead to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as alcohol and substance abuse, depression and anxiety, a lack of self-confidence, and suicidal thoughts.

Stress-related issues can also result in illnesses and diseases.

What is considered unemployment?

If you are a person that is without a job, then you would be considered unemployed. This means you do not have any part-time, full-time, or independent contractor employment position.

If you are actively in search of a job and are currently available to do work but do not have a job, you are also unemployed.

If you are on a temporary layoff, you would also be considered unemployed even if you could possibly be employed again in the same position in the future.

Tips for anyone who is unemployed

Some tips for dealing with unemployment in your life can be helpful. It will encourage you to allow yourself to feel what you are feeling.

Unemployment is one of the most stressful circumstances to deal with, and sometimes allowing yourself to feel emotional about it can be helpful.

It can be best to think of unemployment as a temporary setback and not a permanent one. This can help motivate you, and manifest more positive thoughts to regain your self-confidence.

You can also try to start networking with people in your industry, as this can lead to opportunities.

Final thoughts

The unemployment rate in South Africa is an ongoing fight that only seems to get exacerbated every year. As unemployment keeps rising, it puts unwanted strain on an already struggling economy.

The effects of unemployment can be felt by both jobless individuals and the communities they come from. There are different ways that unemployment negatively affects communities with high rates of joblessness.

Poverty and inequality are the biggest results of unemployment in communities, as well as an absence of access to fundamental basic services due to a lack of efficient economic systems in these areas.

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Youth unemployment in South Africa remains stubbornly high: Experts

• [File Image] Job seekers stand in a line hoping to be picked for employment.
• Image Credits :
• SABC-News-Unemployment-Reuters
• Tshepiso Moche
• 30 May 2022, 18:26 [SAST]

Experts say youth unemployment in South Africa remains stubbornly high with young people between the ages of 15 and 24 accounting for 66.5% of the unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Former Statistician-General Padi Lehohla maintains that access to quality education is the only answer for dealing with the high youth unemployment.

Others say government needs to liberalise the economy to create conditions for job creation.

Research by Statistics South Africa shows that a growing number of young people have been discouraged with the labour market and are also not building on their skills base through education and training.

As Stats SA prepares to release the quarterly labour force survey for the first quarter of 2022 on Tuesday, Lehohla says government’s youth employment programmes are not enough to adequately deal with the problem.

“A million less among the 15 – 24 were employed in 2020 compared to 2008. Five hundred thousand less were employed in the 25 – 34 level in 2020 compared to 2008. Now tell me whether there is a youth program which actually supports this? The story is very disturbing, yet the President [Cyril Ramaphosa] says we have employed so many among the youth.

“The figures don’t support that, who gives the President the numbers. The Statistician-General presents the numbers, who are the bureaucrats who then advices the President on this for him to make this kind of statement,” asks Lehohla.

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Employment in South Africa - statistics & facts

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Tackling youth unemployment: What works, what doesn't

Youth unemployment is one of South Africa’s most intractable challenges, made worse by COVID-19. Prior to the pandemic the unemployment rate (including people who had given up looking for work) was just under 70% for people aged 15 to 24 .

A year later the rate had increased to 74% – despite government investments. So it is crucial to understand what interventions are working. But how do we evaluate whether youth employment programmes are successful, particularly when unemployment is caused by the structure of the economy ?

The obvious answer, of course, is whether a programme results in a young person getting employed.

This is logical and easy to measure. It can easily be linked to the release of funding to programmes. And it allows for programmes to be compared. This was done in a systematic review of 113 programmes internationally .

However, as we have explored in several recent studies, there are a number of drawbacks to relying solely on job placement as an indicator of successful intervention. Doing so misses out on outcomes that are equally important, or more so, amid high structural unemployment.

Together, these studies show that job placement alone is an insufficient goal and measure of the success of youth employability programmes.

These lessons are particularly important in economies that have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, where youth employment recovery will take time.

Inadequate measure of success

We make this argument based on several studies. The first looked at long-term employment outcomes of 1,892 youth between 18 and 25 who participated in youth employability programmes over the period 2017-2018. These are programmes run by NGOs, business and the state. They typically include technical and soft skills training.

The proportion of participants who found jobs and stayed in them over time was just 28% – somewhat better than a matched sample from the quarterly labour force survey data , but still low. But we also found evidence that programmes had other important outcomes. These included a continued positive orientation to the labour market, and improved self-esteem and self-efficacy – important attributes for managing the protracted transition to work in a low growth economy.

The second involved analysis of the quarterly labour force survey and general household survey data to understand the nature of young people not in employment or in education and training. It found that while many such youth have never worked, a significant portion find themselves in and out of work without making much longer-term progress.

The third study draws together several qualitative studies conducted in the past 10 years. It shows that young people are frustrated by the constant cycle of finding and taking up training and employment opportunities, without making progress towards a longer-term career.

Together, these studies show that job placement alone is an insufficient goal and measure of the success of youth employability programmes. Four reasons for this argument emerge from these studies.

First, job placement says more about demand than supply. A young person’s ability to find a job doesn’t depend only on their skills but also on whether the labour market is creating sufficient demand for employees. No matter how well a programme trains and supports a young person, if there are limited jobs, young people are unlikely to be employed.

Second, if a programme is getting young people into jobs even though job numbers are not growing – as in South Africa – these placements may be at the expense of other work seekers.

Individual programmes can get people into jobs while the overall youth unemployment rate stays stagnant or rises. In the context of a rapidly contracting economy in the COVID-19 era , this is a particularly important argument against job placement as the only measure of a programme’s success.

Third, using this single indicator takes attention away from longer-term pathways towards sustainable livelihoods. Many jobs in South Africa, especially at entry level, are insecure, part time or casual. There’s a risk of disregarding whether a job is decent and has prospects for learning and career development.

Young people typically do not stay in jobs . This is either because the job is not a good fit or is for a short term only. Other barriers, such as transport costs, also account for why they are unable to stay in jobs.

Qualitative and quantitative evidence shows that young people find jobs that are typically short lived, before having to look again for their next placement. Policymakers should consider whether these short term experiences add up to something longer term – or there’s a risk of perpetuating the cycle of underemployment.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, evaluating programmes on the basis of job placement alone underestimates the multidimensionality of poverty . Evidence repeatedly shows how many barriers and challenges young people face as they leave the education system and begin to find their way towards a job, and perhaps even a career.

Evidence repeatedly shows how many barriers and challenges young people face as they leave the education system and begin to find their way towards a job, and perhaps even a career.

These barriers are not only related to the labour market or education system. They also include issues such as food insecurity, income poverty, and care responsibilities , among others. Each of these limit the ability of young people to look for work.

These interrelated challenges influence young people’s ability to take up training or job opportunities.

Taken together, these challenges require far more intensive support than simply training and placing a young person in a job.

Alternative approaches

It is crucial that funders, policy makers, and programme developers invest in more intensive support that can help young people meet the challenges they face in seeking work. They must also insist on measures beyond job placement as indicators of success. International evidence bears this out. It shows that across 113 programmes reviewed, multidimensional programmes that seek to provide more comprehensive support to youth are more effective than those that offer training only. They are particularly successful when they target the most vulnerable youth.

Further, our research recognises the crucial contribution such programmes play in keeping young people connected to opportunities, and reducing social exclusion and social drift. This is when young people become increasingly disconnected from the labour market, training opportunities and positive social inclusion, which in turn can have negative consequences on mental health.

Given this evidence and the fact that South Africa is facing a stagnant economy for some time, it is crucial that funders, policy makers and those working on youth employment interventions evaluate and invest in programmes on the basis of their ability to keep young people positively oriented towards the labour market. The programmes should help improve their employability, even if the young participant is not yet able to find an actual job.

Outcome indicators that can more adequately measure these factors include enhancing job search resilience, promoting self-esteem and self-efficacy, and reducing discouragement .

There are ample reasons to move away from evaluating employability programmes on the basis of employment outcomes alone. Rather, a range of indicators should be used to track whether young people remain engaged, believe in themselves and keep trying to find a job. This, while developing the personal attributes that will make them attractive to future employers.

Each of these outcomes is more difficult to measure than a simple count of job placements. But it’s not impossible.

Lauren Graham, Associate professor at the Centre for Social Development in Africa, University of Johannesburg, University of Johannesburg; Ariane De Lannoy, Senior Researcher: Poverty and Inequality Initiative, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town, and Leila Patel, Professor of Social Development Studies, University of Johannesburg.

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Ramaphosa’s 2024 SONA Emphasises Significance Of Job Creation

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With South Africa's unemployment rate at 32% and youth unemployment at 43.4%, President Ramaphosa's emphasis on job creation underscores the urgent need for economic growth and innovative solutions. The president highlighted the importance of job creation during his 2024 SONA speech. 

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President Cyril Ramaphosa revealed that 4.3 million young people have signed up for the SAYouth.mobi service. Through signing up for the platform 1.6 million youth have secured opportunities. 

The president made this revelation in the State of The National (SONA) address on Thursday evening when highlighting the importance of job creation in South Africa. South Africa's unemployment rate, hovering around 32%, demonstrates the imperative need for economic growth and effective solutions.

With over 4.6 million unemployed youth and a youth unemployment rate of 43.4%, the need for programmes that combat youth employment is paramount. The SAYouth.mobi service is a free online portal connecting young people to various opportunities. The service is zero-rated meaning it does not require data to use. 

Youth can sign up on the SAYouth.mobi service as their first step to finding a load of job opportunities. The platform connects youth to the YES program, Full-time jobs , Part-time jobs , Learnerships , Volunteering and learning opportunities.

While the president spoke at length about how government policies and interventions helped millions of vulnerable South Africans through the telling of a story, Ramaphosa acknowledged the challenge of youth unemployment in the country. 

Ramaphosa mentioned several programmes introduced by the government in recent years to combat unemployment including the President Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI). 

Through the Presidential Employment Stimulus, we have created more than 1.7 million work and livelihood opportunities 

Through the PYEI, more than one million job opportunities were created for youth in schools across the country. These young people were employed as teaching assistants and general school assistants. 

The President challenges members of the public to find out how these youth assisted teachers and contributed to schools by inquiring about their impact. 

If you go around our country, and you talk to school principals, you talk to school teachers, they will tell you how beneficial this programme has been in assisting them in their schools but more importantly how beneficial this programme has been to these young people who are being introduced to the world of work. 

Ramaphosa explained that the PYEI has provided youth with earning opportunities while also improving educational outcomes at schools. 

These programmes matter because work matters to people 

The president revealed that the NYDA has also played a key role in assisting young people to start their own businesses. 

They explained that having a job and income remains fundamental to how people see themselves and their self-worth, dignity, hope, purpose and inclusion.

Ramaphosa says several companies in the private sector have joined the government's efforts to combat youth unemployment as they see the need to join in the task of creating job opportunities for young people. 

How Young People Can Sign Up For SAYOUTH.Mobi

• Go to the S AYouth website
• You will need your South African ID number, which includes citizens, permanent residents, or refugee numbers.
• Follow the prompts - enter your employment status if asked

You can cancel, continue, or delete your account whenever you feel like you change your number, please inform the network. Keep your phone on and be ready to receive notifications from the network. If you need assistance, you can call the toll-free support line at 0800 72 72 72.

30 Years Of Democracy

Ramaphosa began his SONA speech acknowledging the nation's struggle for freedom. The 2024 SONA speech is taking place 30 years after the country’s first democratic elections.  

The president explained that when former President Nelson Mandela cast his ballot in 1994, it was the beginning of a new era and not just a ballot that was put in ballot boxes, but a dream that South Africa belongs to all.

After casting his ballot, Madiba said 

This is the beginning of a new era. We have moved from an era of pessimism, division, limited opportunities, turmoil and conflict. We are starting a new era of hope, reconciliation and nation-building.

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Young South Africans innovate and hustle to beat unemployment

Many of our young people are resilient and inventive about making ends meet/Freepik.com

To solve South Africa’s dismaying youth unemployment challenge we must end the pervasive narrative that South Africans, and particularly young unemployed South Africans, are reliant on the government.

It’s quite simply not true, as a recent African Response survey has revealed. Among the respondents who classified themselves as unemployed and looking for work, 41% are earning up to R15 000 a month through income-generating activities such as baking, building and hairdressing.

What this shows is that many of our young people are resilient and inventive about making ends meet. We need to reinforce that and build their confidence so that that attitude catches on.

The survey, answered by 603 respondents aged 18 to 34, was conducted via our MzansiVoice online platform, which offers access to a community of more than 14 000 individuals in the low- to middle-income market segment.

Troublesome trend

Statistics South Africa’s youth unemployment rate, which measures job-seekers between 15 and 34 years old, has consistently been above 30% since at least 2013. In the first quarter of this year it reached a record 45.5%. When a troublesome trend lasts for more than a decade, new solutions must be sought.

But what our survey reveals is that the majority of the individuals behind the statistics – 90% black, 50% living in Gauteng, 37% living in township areas – already have a can-do attitude.

When we focus on the segment that report earning up to R15 000 a month, the statistics start to tell us an interesting story. They highlight a cohort that, despite considering themselves to be unemployed, are still active in terms of earning an income through other means.

They list taking on short-term contracts or freelancing, running their own businesses, working at what they describe as side hustles, renting rooms or homes, earning investment income and doing odd jobs. Just over a quarter (26%) said they relied on social grants and 13% listed the National Students Financial Aid Scheme as an income source.

Anything but helpless

Our young people are anything but helpless and reliant on the government. The pervasive narrative that the government should be solving the youth employment problem by providing young people with jobs is potentially psychologically damaging.

What our young people need is encouragement where they have created their own pathways to earning an income, initiatives that stimulate the youth’s drive towards creating their own income pathways, and the reassurance that they can build a financial future for themselves.

For one, the resilient adaptability that this age cohort shows is going to be the superpower of the future. The world is rapidly changing, and South Africa along with it. There is no new normal, there is just constant change.

The world of work is being revolutionised by technological change, not least the increased use of automation and artificial intelligence. Instead of being afraid of it, we should be equipping and encouraging young people to embrace this change.

Over-reliance on university

Our survey also underlined another long-standing trend, one that is not likely to help young South Africans in the new world of rapid technological change, including the unfolding transformation that artificial intelligence and machine learning are causing.

The trend is an over-reliance on formal, university education as a panacea. This might sound counterintuitive; however, it is notable that despite South Africa’s graduate unemployment rate being significantly lower than the national unemployment rate, it has increased dramatically over the past decade.

Graduate unemployment was measured by Statistics South Africa at 10.6% in the first quarter of 2023. In the first quarter of 2013, it was 5.5%. Worse, unemployment among those with tertiary qualifications not gained via a university has grown even more, almost doubling from 11.9% in the first quarter of 2013 to 23.5% in the first quarter of 2023.

The National Development Plan’s vision of seeing the majority of young people’s post-school instruction taking place at technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges is not happening according to plan.

The problem with TVET colleges

While there is a small number of TVET colleges that perform well, on average poor programme relevance and quality, which leads to poor employment prospects and low earnings potential, has led to an over-emphasis on university-level education.

Yet South Africa has such a severe shortage of artisanal skills it is a constraint on economic growth, according to research by a number of organisations, including the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa.

Something is wrong.

Our education system needs a shake-up. So does the national mindset. We need to put aside the stigma associated with blue-collar work. Good artisanal skills are sought after, and not only in South Africa – there is a global shortage – and many of them are future-proof in ways that knowledge-economy skills are not.

Programme relevance

We need to focus on programme relevance and ensuring that those who leave tertiary education come equipped with the skills, including soft skills, that they need to thrive.

Additionally, the businesses and government departments that offer learnerships to young people who have knowledge-economy skills need to think seriously about the quality of those learnerships. We need to offer those young people real opportunities to gain solid experience that makes them more marketable.

When our young people begin to believe in themselves in larger numbers, when they are educated with the skills they really need, and the skills that the economy needs, and when they are educated to have a mindset that looks for and creates opportunities, we will be able to close this gaping hole in our society that is filled with young, unemployed people.

What we need

South Africa is crying out for people with artisanal and engineering skills, digital literacy, critical thinking and adaptability.

Our survey reveals that the perception is that the more educated you are, the more job opportunities you will have. Among the young employed cohort we surveyed, 42% are continuing their studies.

In addition, 44% of the full survey sample are studying or have studied towards a qualification they believe will give them the best job opportunities in South Africa.

Some of them are going to be disappointed. While this is partly because South Africa is mired in a stagnant economy, we have to ask why our education system is not producing the skills our economy needs.

An education system, and public narrative, that emphasises an entrepreneurial, self-reliant mindset is a good place to start.

Mamapudi Nkgadima is CEO of African Response , a South Africa-based research and insights company with unparalleled access to the country’s under-served and often misunderstood market segment: the low-to-middle-income market segment. African Response are expert researchers with a fluent understanding of the cultural diversity, linguistic nuances, beliefs and practices that underpin life in low-to-middle income households in South Africa. Why? Because we go where few others dare.

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Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Africa needs to focus on the lives of Africans

Kenneth Mokgatlhe | Supplied.

Published Jun 24, 2024

Kenneth Mokgatlhe

It has become clearer over the years that African governments do not have respect for the lives of fellow black people in their countries.

In many of these African countries, governed by black governments, black people are murdered like chickens, plunged into underdevelopment, and treated without any sense of dignity.

However, it has struck me as particularly strange how some of the incompetent governments would go and meddle in the Israel-Palestine impasse while neglecting their people.

South Africa, which dragged the State of Israel, into the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the most unequal country in the world. Around 75 to 85 people are violently murdered daily, and most victims are black.

South Africa has the highest unemployment rate of 33% in the world, and most of those young people are black. According to the World Bank in 2020, 50.5% of the population lived in poverty, while more than 13 million people lived with food shortages or at extreme poverty levels in South Africa.

South Africa has more domestic problems which pose internal national security threats, a bomb that is waiting or expected to explode at any time. It should be given that the incoming government should prioritise the plight of its destitute black people in South Africa before interfering in affairs that are of no strategic benefit to the larger population of the country.

A country’s foreign policy should be an assertion of its national self-interest to the benefit of its domestic situation. A sober person should ask how many millions of rand the ICJ case cost the South African government, how it served the nation domestically, and what effect the exercise had on bringing an end to a war between Israel and Hamas.

To make matters worse, we have a continental body, the AU, headquartered in Ethiopia, which has no regard for Africa and its people. We have a bloody war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which according to the Council on Foreign Relations has claimed the lives of more than six million black people since 1996. Daily, black people continue to kill each other in the eastern DRC, but the AU appears unwilling to make a clarion call to end the bloodshed.

Likewise, the 2020-23 war between Eritrea and Ethiopia claimed more than 700 000 lives, and has resulted in continued war crimes in the north of Ethiopia. Here again, the AU (and the UN) has not taken action. Maybe this is because this war did not trend in the mainstream media.

The AU should be the voice of the powerless in the continent and seek to speak on their behalf. However, it is becoming irrelevant to many Africans because it does not advance their interests.

I am dragging the toothless AU into this discussion because its chairperson of the Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, constantly uses all available platforms to condemn Israel. When is he going to prioritise black people on his own continent?

If you are so passionate about international human rights, are you not seeing black people (who share our ancestors and heritage) fighting each other in Haiti? Why is he so obsessed about Israel when many black people are dying in their thousands? What is more special about Israel than confronting all those who are responsible for treating African lives as cheap?

According to media reports, about 15 000 Sudanese who are also African have been killed while more than 30 000 have been badly injured since the start of the civil war in 2023, but there is absolutely nothing that the AU has done to arrest the volatile situation in Sudan.

The World Food Programme has recently alerted the world that Sudan is now facing unprecedented levels of starvation. We should be asking if starvation has been used as a means of war (famine).

Africa needs to defend and protect the lives of Africans in the continent as well as in the diaspora. We have enough problems in the mother continent that should be preoccupying our minds rather than finding ourselves trapped in the wars in Asia, Europe, or the Americas.

Africa needs to co-operate in combating wars, violent murders, terrorism, poverty, inequalities, water crisis, human and drug trafficking, and unemployment among the youth and women.

There is a strong need for African governments to pursue beneficial national self-interest which will translate into the economic and political fortunes of their countries.

Mokgatlhe is a political writer, analyst, and researcher.

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Unemployment Speech | Speech on Unemployment Speech for Students and Children in English

April 10, 2023 by Prasanna

Unemployment Speech:  Unemployment is a severe issue restrained to any particular country but faced by all countries of the world during a period of recession. However, the type of unemployment may vary from one country to another, like India’s case; it is chronic unemployment, which has made it a significant problem in India.

Unemployment can be defined as the unavailability of jobs for people who are willing to work. Among many reasons, high population and consequently increase in demand has led to the unemployment problem in India. However, in some other countries, unemployment may occur due to the recession period of the business cycle.

Unemployment should not be ignored in a country as it can become the reason for its doom if not taken into account.

Students can also find more  English Speech Writing  about Welcome Speeches, Farewell Speeches, etc

Long And Short Speeches On Unemployment for Kids And Students in English

In this article, we provide a long speech for students and children on the Unemployment problem with about 500 words and another short speech with 150 words approximately on the same topic.

These speeches can help anyone who is looking forward to presenting a speech on the topic, as mentioned above, be it students, teachers, or any other research person.

Furthermore, we have also included ten Lines on the topic and some FAQs to make the content clearer to our readers.

A Long Speech on Unemployment is helpful for students of classes 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. A Short Speech on Unemployment is helpful to students of classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Long Speech On Unemployment 500 Words In English

Good morning/afternoon/ evening to everyone present here, I am obliged to welcome each of you to discuss a severe and emerging problem of the world, unemployment.

Before getting into the topic, I would like to give a small gist of how and why a country is faced with unemployment. Some of the most common and primary reasons could be population growth, slow economic growth, slow growth of service and economic sectors, seasonal unemployment and decrease of small scale industries, etc.

These being some of the most common reasons for unemployment in India, the situation has worsened so much that people with high degrees are on the verge of unemployment either due to no jobs or due to a low pay scale. Apart from these, there is a significant population in India that is linked to the agricultural sector.

In the agricultural sector as well we get disguised unemployment, without people even being aware of it. Another problem of the agricultural sector is that many crops or plantations only provide employment during the harvesting month or when the crop is finally ready to be sold; the remaining time proves to be jobless for many farmers. This gives rise to seasonal unemployment.

Unemployment is a tragedy for the individual who feels he/ she is incapable of earning a living and for their families who have to go through a hard time. Moreover, it is a tragedy for the country and cannot cater to the rising talent among its youth, and misses out on the untapped talent.

The youth of the country or the young generation is hard-working, and they are ambitious. They have great talent, but it becomes difficult to even for the Government to cater to huge demand, and this has given more condition to the idea of “the best one wins.”

The population of educated people is increasing by each passing day, and the Government is unable to employ them at workplaces. The literate youth is not satisfied with the inconsistent salary offered to them, and the danger of unemployment makes the situation worse.

Since most youths do not have the technical knowledge or practical expertise, they are also offered clerical jobs with not enough to accommodate their satisfactional needs.

Those who have technical knowledge even face more disappointment as they cannot get a decent job as per their qualifications due to the long lists of applicants available.

Though it was perfect that people are becoming more aware of the situation now and most of them are getting educated to secure a better future, one should have technical skills and knowledge of their studies that can help them in the long run. The change of curriculum by the Government will also help to improve this problem.

Thus, we have to overcome the situation of unemployment as a country, and each of us need to work on ourselves to make a better future. The Government should also take further steps to cater to the increasing yet talented demand.

Lastly, I would like to thank you, the audience, for having patience and turning up today for this noble cause.

Short Speech On Unemployment 150 Words In English

A very good morning/ evening to one and all present here, I appreciate your efforts to gather here to discuss the problem of unemployment in today’s world.

Unemployment is a significant problem in almost all countries of the world, be it developing or developed. However, the incidence of unemployment is different in both cases.

In the first case, the problem is chronic and affects the economy and wellbeing of the people. However, in developed countries, unemployment instead occurs due to the recession in the business cycle and temporary. It can also be voluntary unemployment, which does not affect the wellbeing of individuals.

India being a developing country, is no exception.

Here we have chronic unemployment, which has resulted in the brain drain of our country and many potent problems faced by our youth. Though the IT sectors have developed over the years, the underdevelopment of other sectors aggravates the problem.

Thus, government initiatives are required in this regard for a better future of the coming generation.

10 Lines On Unemployment Speech In English

• The young generation is three times more likely to remain unemployed than the older generation.
• It is estimated that 23% of the youth are currently unemployed in the world.
• Seventy-five million people are trained each year but have no job.
• In the year 2013, there were about 157.1 unemployed people throughout the world’s developing countries.
• Among all regions, east India has the highest rate of unemployment.
• However, 4.5% of East Asia’s unemployment rate, which is quite low.
• Among other developing regions of the world, sub-Saharan Africa has the second most jobless people, followed by South Asia.
• Around 600 million young people aged between 15-24 years are not into education, employment, or training.
• The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that the global youth unemployment rate is expected to reach 13.1% in 2016 and remained throughout 2017.
• Almost 90% of young people live in developing countries in the world.

FAQs On Unemployment Speech

Question 1. What are unemployment insurance benefits?

Answer: Unemployment benefits refer to partial replacement of regular earnings and help one to meet expenses while one looks for another job. They are not based on financial needs.

Question 2. How do I stop claiming unemployment benefits?

Answer: The simple way to stop one’s claim is t stop filling your weekly claims. One may stop claiming at any time they wish to during the benefit year.

Question 3. In which type of employment, marginal productivity is zero?

Answer: In disguised unemployment, marginal productivity is zero because many workers are involved in the agricultural sector, whereas their contribution to the total output is zero.

Question 4. What type of unemployment is found in developed countries?

Answer: Voluntary unemployment is the most common type of unemployment found in developed countries.

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2 Minute Speech On Poverty In South Africa In English

Good morning to everyone in this room. I would like to thank the principal, the teachers, and my dear friends for allowing me to speak to you today about poverty in South Africa. At the tip of the African continent, South Africa is a country with a rich cultural heritage that borders the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans.

Poverty is more severe for some sections of South Africa than for others. These categories include black people, women-headed families, the elderly, those with less education, the jobless, and those who live in rural regions, including those in KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, and the Eastern Cape.

In South Africa, a large majority of the poor reside in locations with few employment options, and their chances of finding work are sometimes further limited by their lack of or inadequate education.

Many people who were trapped in poverty have found relief from the extension of social assistance, but long-term progress in the fight against poverty and its effects needs rapid economic growth and substantial transformation of the South African Education System. Thank you.

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Ramaphosa pledges to be a President for all South Africans in inaugural speech, as he warns against dissent

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19th June 2024 By: Sashnee Moodley Senior Deputy Editor Polity and Multimedia

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“The formation of a government of national unity (GNU) is a moment of profound significance. It is the beginning of a new era.”

This was the statement made by Cyril Ramaphosa in his inaugural speech, at the Union Buildings, where he pledged himself to be a President for all South Africans and to work with everybody committed to “a better life for all”.

The inauguration, which was overseen by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo , and attended by various heads of State as well as former Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe , marks Ramaphosa’s second stint as South Africa’s leader, but this time, not only backed by his political party, the African National Congress (ANC), but also by other parties that make up the GNU.

After losing its outright majority in the May 29 national and provincial elections the ANC was forced to forge alliances with other parties to form a national government.

The GNU, so far, has five signatories – the ANC, Democratic Alliance, Inkatha Freedom Party, Patriotic Alliance and the GOOD party – representing more than two-thirds of the seats in the National Assembly.

In his speech on Wednesday, Ramaphosa compared the GNU to the one that was formed 30 years ago, following the end of Apartheid.

“In their multitude, in voices that are many and diverse, the people of South Africa have voted and made known their wishes, their concerns and their expectations. We accept and respect the results of the elections and we once again say the people have spoken. Their will shall be done without any doubt or question. The voters of South Africa did not give any single party the full mandate to govern our country alone. They have directed us to work together to address their plight and realise their aspirations,” he acknowledged.

The President conceded that there were many areas in basic service delivery where the previous government fell short – electricity, jobs, land, housing, food, healthcare, safety, corruption – and assured South Africans that he would work with any political party and sector willing to help tackle the challenges facing the country.

“…the people of South Africa have stressed that they are impatient with political bickering and the endless blame game among politicians and political parties. They want us to put their needs and aspirations first and they want us to work together for the sake of our country. Today I stand before you as your humble servant to say we have heard you. Today, I make a solemn commitment to be a President for all South Africans; to defend our Constitution and protect our democracy; to work with all those who share the dream of a better life for all; to care for the poor and the vulnerable, and to support all those who are in need; and to make our country stronger, more resilient, more equal and united,” Ramaphosa pledged.

He noted the strides that had been made since the end of Apartheid to advance the country and the lives of its citizens, but also recognised that inequality and social fragmentation was rife.

Ramaphosa admitted that this could easily turn into instability but said extraordinary courage and leadership and leaders of the country working together could help move the country forward.

He mentioned the Statement of Intent, signed by parties of the GNU which commited to rapid, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and requested that political parties, civil society, labour and business attend a national dialogue to deliberate on the issues facing the country.

While Ramaphosa’s speech was full of calls for cooperation, unity and collaboration he also sought to dissuade any attempts that could be made to encourage discord or dissent.

“We must reject every attempt to divide or distract us, to sow doubt or cynicism, or to turn us against one another. Those who seek to stand in our way, those who seek to inflame tensions, will not succeed, because South Africans are resolute. Those who seek to undermine our institutions will fail, because democracy lives in the hearts of our people and will never be dislodged. Nothing will distract us from serving the people and advancing their interests. Now is the time to move forward. Together, we will do more and better. On this day, our hands are joined together. We are united. We are full of hope,” he stated.

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Ramaphosa is sworn in for a second term as South Africa’s president with help from coalition parties

Cyril Ramaphosa was sworn in for a second term as South Africa’s president on Wednesday in a ceremony in the administrative capital, Pretoria, with help from a coalition of parties for the first time in its 30-year rule.

South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, is sworn in as President at his inauguration at the Union Buildings in Tshwane, South Africa, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (Kim Ludbrook/Pool Photo via AP)

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South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, is sworn in as President by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, left, at his inauguration at the Union Buildings in Tshwane, South Africa, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (Kim Ludbrook/Pool Photo via AP)

Cyril Ramaphosa waves as he arrives ahead of his inauguration as President, at the Union Buildings in Tshwane, South Africa, Wednesday June 19, 2024. (Kim Ludbrook/Pool Photo via AP)

South Africans gather ahead of the inauguration of South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa as President at the Union Buildings South Lawns in Tshwane, South Africa, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

South African military members arrive ahead of the inauguration of South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa as President at the Union Buildings in Tshwane, South Africa, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (Phill Magakoe/Pool Photo via AP)

South Africans cheer ahead of the inauguration of South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa as President at the Union Buildings South Lawns in Tshwane, South Africa, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Cyril Ramaphosa, left, is greeted by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, right, as he arrives ahead of his inauguration as President, at the Union Buildings in Tshwane, South Africa, Wednesday June 19, 2024. (Kim Ludbrook/Pool Photo via AP)

Members of the South African Defence Force await the the arrival of President-elect Cyril Ramaphosa ahead of the inauguration ceremony at the Union Buildings in Tshwane, South Africa, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Shiraaz Mohamed)

Zulu King Misuzulu kaZwelithini, left, and his third wife Nomzamo Masesi Myeni, right, arrive ahead of the inauguration of South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa as President at the Union Buildings in Tshwane, South Africa, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (Phill Magakoe/Pool Photo via AP)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Cyril Ramaphosa was sworn in for a second term as South Africa’s president on Wednesday in a ceremony in the administrative capital, Pretoria, after his reelection with the help from a coalition of parties, a first in the country’s 30-year rule.

Ramaphosa is now set to appoint a Cabinet in a new coalition government after his African National Congress party lost its parliamentary majority in an election last month. He was reelected president by lawmakers on Friday after the main opposition party and a smaller third party joined the ANC in an agreement to co-govern Africa’s most industrialized economy.

He will have to guide the first coalition government in which no party has a majority. At least three parties will make up what the ANC is calling a government of national unity, with more invited to join.

Ramaphosa was administered the oath of office in a public ceremony at the Union Buildings, the seat of government, by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.

King Mswati III of Eswatini, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, Zimbabwe President Emerson Mnangagwa and former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga were among many dignitaries who attended the inauguration ceremony as Ramaphosa begins what promises to be a tough final term in office.

The ceremony included a 21-gun salute by the presidential guard and a flyover by the South Africa Air Force over the Union Buildings. South African musicians and cultural dancers entertained thousands of citizens who attended the swearing-in.

Addressing the nation, Ramaphosa said that the people had spoken and their will would be adhered to.

“The voters of South Africa did not give any single party the full mandate to govern our country alone. They have directed us to work together to address their plight and realize their aspirations,” he said.

Ramaphosa said the people of South Africa “have also been unequivocal in expressing their disappointment and disapproval of our performance in some of the areas in which we have failed them.” He also recognized the society “remains deeply unequal and highly polarized,” which could ”easily turn into instability.”

“The lines drawn by our history, between black and white, between man and woman, between suburbs and townships, between urban and rural, between the wealthy and the poor, remain etched in our landscape,” he said.

He also promised that the new government would create new work opportunities to face the crippling unemployment as well as work on providing people with basic service s like housing, healthcare and clean water.

While Ramphosa’s words were meant to reassure an already economically strained population, the new administration could prove challenging to lead.

It is made up of parties that are ideologically opposed and don’t see eye to eye on how to address the country’s many challenges, including land redistribution policies and proposed solutions to the electricity crisis, as well as their contrary views on affirmative action.

Major players such as the Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party have already joined the coalition, and others like the Patriotic Alliance, the GOOD Party and the Pan Africanist Congress are expected to follow.

However, the third largest party, led by former President Jacob Zuma, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party , and the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters party have refused to be part of it.

It is unclear when the formation of the new Cabinet would be announced.

AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa