Report on an investigation of the youth employment policy solutions adopted by the South African government

Abstract

South Africa enjoys the dubious recognition as a global leader in unprecedented levels of unemployment and more specifically youth unemployment. The youth unemployment crisis has its origins prior to the advent of democracy with a Statistics South Africa (Statistics SA) estimate from 1996 of 53% youth unemployment. This remains a threat to the reliasation of our national development goals and which continues to exclude young people from enjoying the democratic dividends that a transformed state was expected to deliver. Youth unemployment remains a scourge which perpetuates intergenerational cycle of poverty and growing inequality. It is thus unsurprising that South Africa's National Development Plan Vision 2030 noted the urgency for the state to "find ways to reduce alarming levels of youth unemployment and to provide young people with broader opportunities [...] Failure to act will threaten democratic gains" (National Planning Commission 2012: 16). This is evident in the increasing growth of discouraged workseekers in the economy (de Lanoy, Graham, Patel, & & Leibrandt, 2018).