Ramaphosa says ANC committed to tackling ‘global problem’ of youth unemployment

African National Congress (ANC) president Cyril Ramaphosa says government is working towards addressing youth unemployment in South Africa.

Ramaphosa delivered a keynote address during a youth engagement session held in Mbombela, Mpumalanga on Thursday.

The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) event comes ahead of the governing party’s 112th birthday celebration on Saturday.

‘Pro-young people’

In his speech, Ramaphosa said the ANC was “irrevocably committed” to empowering young people by dealing with the “huge problem” of youth unemployment.

“What I can tell is that our government is not only pro-poor, it is also pro-young people, it is also pro-women,” he said.

The ANC president also pointed out that youth unemployment was a “global problem”.

He continued to say the ANC was addressing the issue by advancing the economic position of South African youth denied opportunities pre-democracy.

“The African National Congress is determined to undo all these shackles of the past. We are determined to shake off the chains of the past [to] reposition [and] make our economy fit to be able to make jobs for [young people],” he continued.

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“That’s precisely what we working on and that’s precisely what we are going to do.”

Ramaphosa further highlighted the importance of education, saying government needs to support young people who want to pursue their studies at tertiary institutions.

The president stated that more than one million young people have received bursaries over the years.

“We spent R48 billion a year supporting young people with bursaries. This never happened under Apartheid. Only few people got bursaries under Apartheid, but today more than one million got bursaries.

“These are the great achievements of this government. These are the great efforts that this government has pout in place on top of all the other initiatives, therefore, the focus has been on empowering young people… of making sure that they get the necessary skills.”

Watch Ramaphosa’s speech below:

‘Enough is enough’

Earlier, ANCYL president Collen Malatji called on Ramaphosa to fire government officials who are not doing their job, saying the youth was available and ready to serve.

Malatji urged the president and his administration to create more work opportunities.

“It can’t be that we’re the ones who are given donations by countries that have nothing, it must be us who give them donations.

“Africans should no longer be a charity case of Europeans, people that have nothing, who use our raw materials to build their economies and later say Africa is poor and give us food, after using our raw materials to build their economies,” the ANCYL president said.

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“Enough is enough! Young people want to partake in the economic activities of their own country. It is not normal for a minority in the country to carry the majority, it should be the other way round.

“We can’t have Eskom collapsing due to engineers retiring while we also have unemployed engineers. Hire these young engineers to solve our problems. We cannot have a shortage of doctors when we have unemployed doctors,” Malatji added.

Additional reporting by Vhahangwele Nemakonde