A VIEW OF THE WEEK: No country for young men and women

A summer heatwave has left South Africans in many parts of the country sweating in all their folds and rushing to the nearest pool. And like the water we dip in to cool down, nostalgia can refresh and drown us.

So it was with some surprise that SA businesses, SOEs and government departments are going back to the “glory days” for rescue.

The last few weeks have brought interesting developments in the boardroom and streets, with reports retailer Pick n Pay, rail entity Transnet, power utility Eskom and the SA police are hiring those who should be at home feeding their grandchildren sweets and stocking up their pill boxes.

Last week Business Day cited a leaked letter from public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan to Eskom’s chairperson Mpho Makwana, urging the board to consider candidates over the age of 60 for its new CEO.

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A few days later, The Sunday Times reported Transnet was looking to bring back skilled and experienced workers who had taken voluntary severance packages to leave the state-owned entity.

Pick n Pay was also dusting off its Rolodex to bring back Sean Summers, who previously led the company for seven years, while police minister Bheki Cele announced on Tuesday the re-enlisting of detectives, many who had previously retired, to squash gang violence on the Cape Flats and Gugulethu in the Western Cape.

While these men and women will no doubt bring much need wisdom and experience, it does not bode well for the future of the country if we are constantly looking to the past to rescue us from current problems.

The youth will next year line up to vote in general elections, with the victor most likely someone who could have been playing marbles in the schoolyard with their grandparents.

Meanwhile, over 45% of youth in the country do not have a job, critical skills are leaving our borders or heading out the door at 65, and training programmes are often plagued by underfunding and dodgy deals.

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Graduates sit at home or take whatever work they can get.

These are signs of a system led by those who have no plans for the future beyond their term in office.

A 2019 study by researchers at the University of Johannesburg found that contrary to popular beliefs, the youth are not “lazy and sitting on the side of the road”, “politically disengaged” or “politically disruptive and violent”. They are looking for opportunities to better themselves, their living conditions, and the country; but are being let down.

In July, Deputy President Paul Mashatile acknowledged a Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and UN Development Programme (UNDP) report that the country’s unemployment crisis was a “ticking time bomb”.

Those in positions of power should Sellotape UNDP representative Dr Ayodele Odusolaa’s warnings in that report on the mirror: “prolonged joblessness can lead to a lost generation through the erosion of skills and human capital. We need to wean the youth from dependence on social grants to productive employment, and entrepreneurship is critical to addressing this crisis”.

SA may be a movie, and resemble the Wild West at times, but unlike the 2007 hit neo-Western No Country for Old Men, this is no country for young men-or women.