Youth’s lament: ‘The rich get richer and the poor get poorer’

UNEMPLOYED youth have expressed their frustration with the recent Statistic SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey, blaming the government for the staggering figures that show the jobless make up 66.5% of those aged 15 to 24 and 43.5% of 25 to 34-year-olds.

Stats SA found the number of unemployed people in the country had increased by 278 000 to 7.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Siyanda Benya, 24, from Mfuleni, said: “I have been unemployed for more than two years now. We thought that the current government would bring change, as the president had promised before he was elected into his position, but things are getting worse.

“I am not shocked today by the money-heist incidents happening in most of the provinces because people are unemployed and have families to feed. On the other hand, politicians are alleged to be involved in corruption – stealing billions meant to go to the poor people of the country, but nothing happens to them.”

Lisa Silwana, 27, from Kraaifontein, added: “The rich get richer and the poor become poorer, and this is the result of corruption by our leaders. “The recent statistics are very depressing and it seems the government is doing nothing to fight for a higher rate of employment.

“I have lost hope in the current government; nothing has improved, whether in infrastructure or job creation.

“Now, the price of cooking oil has increased tremendously, (and) those like us who are unemployed cannot even afford a simple thing (such as) cooking oil,” said Silwana.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, 22-year-old Sisipho Stemele, from Mfuleni, was retrenched.

“I am so desperate for work, I would take whatever comes my way because I need to survive. I used to work before the Covid-19 pandemic, but unfortunately I was among the retrenched people and ever since then things have not got back to normal,” said Stemele.

Another Mfuleni resident, Apiwe Tsamse, 25, who has been struggling to work after his matric, felt the government also did not prioritise entrepreneurship among the youth.

Meanwhile, Afrika Tikkun Services, the division of Afrika Tikkun specialising in recruitment and training, has called for business and government to “invest in job-creating industries by providing the skills needed by workers to enter and sustain their place in the labour force and the resources needed by small businesses to employ and upskill them”.