President Cyril Ramaphosa says the government will create jobs by focusing on “industries of the future” such as green manufacturing, renewable energy, electric vehicles, and the digital economy.
Ramaphosa said this year the government will finalise a modernised and comprehensive industrial policy that drives economic growth. He added that the government will create jobs and achieve economic growth by focusing on the opportunities in localisation, diversification, digitisation and decarbonisation.
He was speaking on Thursday night during his 2025 State of the Nation Address (Sona) delivered in front of a joint sitting of parliament at the Cape Town City Hall.
“To create jobs, we must leverage our unique strengths and our unrealised potential to build the industries of the future — green manufacturing, renewable energy, electric vehicles, and the digital economy,” Ramaphosa said.
“This year, we will finalise a modernised and comprehensive industrial policy that drives economic growth.
“We will achieve this ambition by focusing on the opportunities in localisation, diversification, digitisation, and decarbonisation.”
235 000 work opportunities created for youth
He praised the work of the presidential employment stimulus as a vehicle to create jobs.
“The success of the presidential employment stimulus shows how public employment
programmes can create meaningful work that generates a wider benefit and contributes to
sustainable employment.
“The employment stimulus has created almost 2.2-million work and livelihood opportunities
through innovative models that provide high-quality work to participants.
“The social employment fund has created over 80 000 jobs this year. It has supported more than 12 000 participants to enter entrepreneurial activities,” the president said.
He said during the past year, young people secured 235 000 work opportunities through the National Pathway Management Network, which is underpinned by the SAYouth.mobi platform.
“We now need to build on these innovative programmes to create jobs for youth on an even greater scale.
“We are seeing positive results in the improvement of the functioning of our network industries as well as the investment opportunities that are opening up and are being taken by investors, leading to job creation.
“Working together with business, labour, and other social partners, we must now finish this work. Over the coming year, we will initiate a second wave of reform to unleash more rapid and inclusive growth.”
Ramaphosa added that the government will invest in skills development for the industries of the future as a vehicle to create youth jobs.
“We have also seen strong growth in digital services and business process outsourcing, which has created jobs for young people. To support this growth, we are investing in skills development for the industries of the future.
“The jobs boost fund has pioneered a new model that links funding for skills in demand to the successful placement and employment of young people,” he said.
2.5-million jobs promised in 2024
In his 2024 Sona, Ramaphosa said the government was determined to create 2.5-million jobs to provide public goods and services in communities over the next five years.
“This includes work done through the presidential employment stimulus, funding to civil society through non-profit companies and organisations to provide work opportunities, expand and institutionalise the National Youth Service in partnership with the South African National Defence Force, and work opportunities for unemployed graduates,” he said at the time.
During his 2023 Sona, Ramaphosa said the economy was larger than it was before the pandemic, citing that between the third quarters of 2021 and 2022, about one-and-a-half million new jobs were created in the economy.
In his address in 2022, the president said the government would concentrate its efforts on mobilising greater levels of investment, which is essential to growing the economy and creating jobs.
He also said that the government would give impetus to the campaign that it embarked on in 2018 to raise R1.2-trillion in new investment.
