At the recent ANC policy conference in Johannesburg, there was some talk about the youth unemployment crisis — although not nearly as much as there was on the controversial step-aside rule for leaders charged with corruption. Some delegates wanted youth unemployment, which is at an all-time high, to be declared a national crisis but it remained a topic for conversation only. No resolutions were made.
This lack of urgency must end. The fact that millions of young people are not actively participating in the economy and relying on grants to survive is a national disaster waiting to happen. We’ve seen discontent spill over into social unrest across the country and this will become more common if we, as a country, don’t act.
Those of us who are young or who are working with youth have been aware for quite some time of the deepening dysfunction around education, social inequality and poverty, which feed into youth unemployment. This is compounded by the lack of understanding by industry leaders and in the public sector about what young people need. Above all, young people are not being heard.
To shift this, we need to move away from imposing “solutions” on young people to seeing them as active partners, meeting them where they are and giving them the help they need now. Four imperatives stand out.
Listen to what young people really need
Young people who are fighting for their survival each day, inevitably have a pretty good idea of what they need and they are telling us that they are not getting it. A poll of 11 000 young people from around the world, conducted through the United Nations Children’s Fund’s (Unicef’s) U-report platform last year, showed that although two-thirds are optimistic about their futures and feel the Covid-19 pandemic bolstered their resilience, many worry that they are not getting the skills they need to compete.
Metalworkers trade union Numsa agrees that there is a big mismatch of skills among South African youth. Young people are often studying degrees for which there is no demand, finding themselves unable to get a job once they do complete tertiary education.
Young entrepreneurs are also not getting the necessary business support. Catherine Wijnberg, director of the social enterprise Fetola Foundation, says: “Historically, only 15% of business development services are directed toward youth. This is also compounded by the fact that two-thirds of entrepreneurs are based in rural or township areas, beyond the reach of traditional small business support structures.”
What is also clear is that more emphasis could be placed on providing non-financial support to young entrepreneurs. As Solomon Makgobatlou, who started a township courier service through the iParcela App, explains: “Help could be strategies on how you could do it and advice from those who have already walked the path.”
Understand the situation on the ground
Makgobatlou believes that his understanding of the conditions faced by entrepreneurs in townships has given him an edge over more established courier companies. In the same way, those of us wanting to support young people need a better understanding of their reality.
Young people think differently, and they are more at home on social media and the internet than older generations, as evidenced by the rise in social media creatives and entrepreneurs. The TikTok video sharing app has given many young people a platform to show their talent, create a name and reputation for themselves and launch their businesses. South African dance sensation Chad Jones landed a place on the TV dance show Dance Yodumo after posting his dance challenge videos. Mpho Pink is another example of someone who has grown a business after posting videos on TikTok.
A critical enabler for youth could be to make the internet more accessible by providing cheaper data. According to the World Economic Forum, sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s most expensive mobile data prices.
Find what works and scale it up
Organisations such as Young Africa and Harambee have helped thousands of young people get jobs and start successful businesses after obtaining expertise in plumbing, electrical, agricultural and mechanical fields. We need to focus on successful formulas such as these and find ways to upscale them through partnerships. There is a significant opportunity for the corporate sector to step up and work with these and other successful organisations to broaden their effectiveness.
Additionally, as Jon Foster-Pedley, the dean and director of Henley Business School Africa, writes, there is clear evidence that equipping young people with relevant and practical business skills and giving them a chance to practise these can help create an army of entrepreneurially-minded people who can become job creators rather than job seekers.
Focus on changing mindsets, not just skill sets
Finally, youth from the Unicef poll told us that soft skills are just as important as technical skills and research shows that simply believing you are a success is more likely to help you achieve success. Much more needs to be done to allow young people to deepen their self-awareness and unblock their minds to show new ways out of difficult situations.
This is not a challenge we can put off until tomorrow. Africa is the youngest continent in the world, with a population of young people that is growing fast. As a young person myself, I am optimistic and hopeful. I believe that Africa’s young people will rise up and produce a different generation of leaders and professionals and realise the vision that Africans have for themselves and their people. Youth could be Africa’s greatest asset. But if governments and the broader society continue to turn their back on us, we will all suffer the consequences.
Kenneth Diole is the corporate social responsibility programme manager at Growthpoint Properties. He is one of the Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 young South Africans 2022.
