President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on the private sector to utilise the SA Youth Mobi portal, which is part of his presidential youth employment intervention (PYEI), to create job opportunities for the country’s young people.
Ramaphosa’s comment came after figures released by Stats SA in May showed that the official unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 34 years ballooned to 46.1% in the first quarter of 2025. In the first quarter of 2015, the official unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 34 was 36.9%.
The SA Youth Mobi portal is also supported by various government entities. It aims to connect unemployed youth with opportunities for work, training, and learning.
Youth unemployment
Writing in his weekly newsletter on Tuesday, Ramaphosa put the matter of youth unemployment under the spotlight. This was in conjunction with the celebration of Youth Month. This marked 49 years since the June 16 Soweto students uprising, which resulted in many youngsters losing their lives at the hands of apartheid security forces.
“The private sector needs to use all available mechanisms, including the Employee Tax Incentive, to hire young people.
“South Africa’s young people deserve to lead lives of dignity. Unemployment is robbing far too many youths of this right. As government and business, let us continue to work together and do all within our means to empower young people to find jobs and create their own opportunities,” said Ramaphosa.
He also pointed out that if government was aiming to live up to its democratic promise, it was essential to invest in the new generation towards unleashing their full potential to a better future.
Strategic approach
Ramaphosa stated that for the country to overcome the challenge of youth unemployment, it was vital to have a strategic approach. He said there should be investment in education and skills development, fostering youth entrepreneurship, and implementing targeted employment programmes focusing on young people.
Ramaphosa’s government has already established the presidential employment stimulus (PES) and PYEI. It aims to provide opportunities to hundreds of thousands of young people. Especially at a time when not enough jobs are being created to absorb new entrants into the labour market.
He said that since it began in 2020, PES has provided more than 2 million jobs and livelihood opportunities. Some of the beneficiaries in the programme to date are young people at 72%, while 66% included women.
“A vital part of government’s efforts to empower young people is the SAYouth.mobi platform. This is a single point for unemployed young South Africans to access opportunities for work, training and learning. There are now over 4.7 million young people registered on the SA Youth platform and the Department of Employment and labour’s employment services database. Through these platforms, young people have been supported to access over 1.6 million earning opportunities,” he said.
SA Youth.mobi platform
“Last week in the City of Tshwane, I met with a number of young people. They told me excitedly that they had been approached by potential employers who had seen their profiles on SA Youth.mobi.
“I want to encourage young job seekers to utilise this trusted recruitment platform at https://sayouth.mobi/. Registration is free and the app is zero rated. This means you can access the site and its contents without incurring any data charges.”
He added that the government has also focused on providing workplace experience and on-the-job training. This as the youth have often expressed frustration around the difficult experience requirements from employers. And this effectively serves as a barrier to entry for them.
