Johannesburg – Many young South Africans will on Wednesday flock to different venues to commemorate Youth Day, while others will participate in digitally hosted events to mark the 45th anniversary of the Soweto uprising.
The 1976 youth managed to win their struggle to scrap Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in education, but today’s young people still face many challenges, including failure to access education, unemployment, poverty and other socio-economic problems.
Information technology graduate Henry Nkosi completed a national diploma in 2017, yet the 24-year-old from Pretoria West is unable to secure employment.
“Information technology [IT] is the future, but I am surprised how we are struggling to get IT jobs. It is shocking because when I enrolled for my diploma at Richfield Graduate Institute of Technology, I was sure that everything will go well, but here I am failing to get a job,” said Nkosi.
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Cebo Mbuyane, 29, from Masoyi outside White River in Mpumalanga completed a three-year marketing diploma in 2014, but is still unemployed.
“It’s seven years since I completed my studies at the Universal College in Nelspruit. The painful thing about my situation is the fact that both my parents died when I was very young and my brothers paid for my studies, hoping that I will find a job and be able to sustain myself.”
Xolani Mogane is also struggling to secure a job after he graduated four years ago. The 28-year-old with a public management diploma from Tshwane North TVET College said when he applies for a job he is told he needs five years’ experience.
“Some of us are from poor families, we can’t afford to offer our services for free to get the experience. “Now I only survive on a part-time driving job. I don’t think the government is doing enough to assist us.”
The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey figures released by Statistics South Africa show that 46.3% of the youth in South Africa is unemployed.
Victor Mashego, the president of Youth Chamber of Commerce and Industry of South Africa, has called on education authorities to prioritise entrepreneurship studies at high school level.
“We are also appealing to the youth to use the skills that they have acquired at school to start businesses instead of waiting to be employed,” said Mashego.
He said another problem they encounter was that many small businesses owned by the youth were informal, making it hard to secure financial assistance from the government. Another headache facing the youth is lack of finance to further their studies.
Psycho Lekhuleni, 23, from Ivory Park in Tembisa completed matric three years ago but “I could not further my studies because I failed to get a bursary or a sponsor”.
By Masoka Dube.
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