President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on businesses to give young people their first jobs. He said employers should stop turning away jobseekers only because they have no work experience.
Ramaphosa spoke at the SA Youth National Leadership Convening on Thursday. He said youth unemployment was an economic, social and human problem. He said the ANC Youth League had called it a “crisis” and a “disaster”.
“We must stop treating a lack of experience as a lack of ability. Let us recognise potential,” Ramaphosa said.
He said young people often could not find a first job because employers wanted earlier work experience. “We must break this cycle,” he said. He asked businesses and the public sector to look at talent, drive and a willingness to learn instead.
“A young person should not have to spend years searching for an opportunity simply because no employer is prepared to give them a first chance,” he said.
Ramaphosa said he had met young people who stayed at home without work. He said some of them were older than 35 and had never had a job. He also spoke about graduates who could not find work and job applications that got no reply.
He asked young jobseekers to upload their CVs to the SA Youth mobi-site to find possible openings.
The president said about 70% of formally employed South Africans worked in the private sector. About 30% worked in the public sector, he said. He said 16.7 million people were now formally employed, up from about eight million when the ANC came into government.
He said government had to make it easier for jobs to grow. Businesses, he said, needed to invest and open their workplaces to young people.
Ramaphosa pointed to a government plan to pay for the early retirement of long-serving public servants. He said one teacher leaving could make room for up to three younger people in the profession.
He said he had told ministers to stop simply training young people and handing out certificates. Training must lead to real jobs, he said.
“Our objective cannot simply be to place young people in temporary programmes. It must be to create pathways into sustainable livelihoods,” he said.
According to Ramaphosa, about two million young people have joined public employment programmes since the Covid-19 pandemic. He said these short placements must lead to more training, new businesses or lasting work.
He asked businesses to work more closely with technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges. Companies could adopt colleges, departments or courses and share their industry know-how, he said. He named Germany and Switzerland as countries where employers help train young people.
“This is not an appeal for charity to employers. It is an appeal for investment in the future of our economy,” he said.
Ramaphosa also asked for more spending on artisan and technician training. He said businesses should help deal with the legacy of Bantu education by investing in future workers.
“We must change our training system and be more focused and embark on a skills revolution, where young people will be trained for jobs, not for certificates,” he said.
He listed the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention, the SA Youth Pathways Network, the Youth Employment Service and Harambee as programmes linking young people to jobs. He said fixing unemployment needed action from employers, government and young people themselves.
Source: this article is based on reporting by IOL. Image: IOL. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice News desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Kgomotso Maake covers news and politics for Tzaneen Voice. Kgomotso reports on government, Parliament, municipalities, courts, crime and service delivery across South Africa, with a close eye on how national decisions reach towns like Tzaneen and the wider Limpopo province. Stories are written in plain English and focus on the facts: who made the decision, what it means, and what happens next.