South Africa’s democracy will “come apart” if the country cannot kickstart the failing economy and create jobs‚ Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane warned on Thursday.
Speaking at an event at Orlando Stadium in Soweto commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1976 student uprisings‚ Maimane said youth unemployment was the single biggest threat to the country’s future.
“If we don’t kick-start our failing economy right now so that we can start creating work opportunities for these millions of young South Africans‚ our democracy will come apart.
“It will not be able to withstand the anger‚ the frustration and the resentment of millions of citizens abandoned by their government‚” Maimane stated‚ saying the children of the country had been “let down” by the government which had failed to deliver on the dreams of 1994.
Presently‚ he said‚ one in three South Africans could not find work.
“When you only look at young South Africans – those under the age of 35 – this goes up to one in two South Africans. Fifty%.
“There are now 8.9 million unemployed South Africans‚ and this number grows every month. That’s more than all the people of Johannesburg and all the people of Cape Town combined.
“Two-thirds of them fall into this ‘youth’ category. Which means that almost 6 million young people cannot enter the job market‚ cannot participate in our economy and cannot start to build a life for themselves‚” Maimane said.
He added that South Africa’s youth unemployment rate was more than four times higher than the global average.
Democracy will come apart if country can’t create jobs‚ warns Maimane
Speaking at an event at Orlando Stadium in Soweto commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1976 student uprisings‚ Maimane said youth unemployment was the single biggest threat to the country’s future.
“If we don’t kick-start our failing economy right now so that we can start creating work opportunities for these millions of young South Africans‚ our democracy will come apart.
“It will not be able to withstand the anger‚ the frustration and the resentment of millions of citizens abandoned by their government‚” Maimane stated‚ saying the children of the country had been “let down” by the government which had failed to deliver on the dreams of 1994.
Presently‚ he said‚ one in three South Africans could not find work.
“When you only look at young South Africans – those under the age of 35 – this goes up to one in two South Africans. Fifty%.
“There are now 8.9 million unemployed South Africans‚ and this number grows every month. That’s more than all the people of Johannesburg and all the people of Cape Town combined.
“Two-thirds of them fall into this ‘youth’ category. Which means that almost 6 million young people cannot enter the job market‚ cannot participate in our economy and cannot start to build a life for themselves‚” Maimane said.
He added that South Africa’s youth unemployment rate was more than four times higher than the global average.
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