Youth and unemployment: our present problem and a missed opportunity

Abstract

Tshepo, a young South African, has faced huge life challenges in the last four years as he has struggled to focus on his studies amid numerous student protests against the hiking of university fees. Despite these challenges, he was determined to complete his undergraduate degree, which he did at the end of 2020. With the COVID-19 pandemic persisting and lockdown rules in place, he was content with an online graduation ceremony in March of 2021. With a degree in hand, he entered the job market, expecting to soon get employment and begin a new and better life. Little did Tshepo know that getting a job was not as easy as he had thought. On June 16, Youth Day in South Africa, to his dismay, he heard devastating news in a televised speech, in which President Cyril Ramaphosa was addressing the nation on the commemoration of the 1976 student protests known as the Soweto uprising. Ramaphosa said, "Young people in our country still remain unemployed, and this is a national crisis; more than half of South Africans aged between sixteen and twenty-four are unemployed." This statement hit Tshepo hard. He had believed young people occupied an important place in South Africa, although remaining marginalized. More than four decades have passed since they began struggling to be recognized and have their plight heard, and yet now they find themselves unemployed.