Ramaphosa urges ANCYL to attract young voters, tackle youth unemployment

President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on the newly elected ANC Youth League (ANCYL) leadership to come up with ideas on how to lure young people to vote for the party in 2024.

Ramaphosa was speaking at the 26th ANCYL congress, which was held at the the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg over the weekend.

On Saturday, Collen Malatji was elected president of the ANCYL unopposed after Aphiwe Mkhangelwa declined nomination from the floor.

Malatji’s slate made a clean sweep for the rest of the youth league’s leadership, with Phumzile Mgcina, Mntuwoxolo Ngudle, Tsakani Shiviti and Zwelo Masilela being elected as deputy president, secretary-general, deputy-secretary general and treasurer-general respectively.

‘Mobilise young people’

Ramaphosa told delegates on Sunday night that the ANCYL must become attractive to the young people in lead up to next year’s general elections.

The ANC president said the youth league’s main task in the immediate future was mobilising for ruling party’s election victory.

“You are the motive force that we long to have so that we bring out our people in their millions to support and to vote for the ANC to ensure an overwhelming victory of the ANC in 2024,” he said.

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“You must rebuild the ANCYL and adhere to the policies of the ANC, you are required to mobilise for the decisive victory of the ANC. The ANC is optimistic that now that there is an elected leadership of the ANCYL, there will be new impetus and drive to mobilise young people on behalf of our movement.”

The ANC president also highlighted that the revival of youth structures represented the ruling party’s overall goal to rebuild and renew itself.

“Without a militant, vibrant and disciplined youth movement that is responsive to the needs of young people, the ANC may eventually lose the ability to grow and renew itself.”

Watch Ramaphosa’s speech below:

Youth unemployment

Ramaphosa also urged the youth wing of the ruling party to tackle the “ticking time bomb” of high unemployment rate amongst young people.

“This newly elected leadership will lead young people at a time when the cost of living is high and unemployment, in particular, youth unemployment, is unacceptably high. More than 11 million people are unemployed in our country,” the ANC president said.

He further said the youth was “correct” to demand that government become more dynamic, systematic and urgent in addressing the unemployment crisis.

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“This ANC government recognised that the state has a pivotal role to play in directly creating employment and other economic opportunities.

“That is why we established the presidential employment stimulus, which has to date created employment and livelihood opportunities for more than a million people. We are aware that more must be done and look forward to engaging with the contributions of the youth league on this and other job creation initiatives.”

Youth unemployment rate currently sits at 46.5%, according to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).

The most recent quarterly labour force survey (QLFS) indicated that the total number of unemployed young people increased by 241 000 to 4.9 million in the first quarter of 2023.

Additional reporting by Molefe Seeletsa