21 Young lives were destroyed on the altar of unashamed capitalist greed. A combination of a failed education system and a youth jobless crisis provided the motive forces behind this tragedy. This is not a rosy picture at all as the national unemployment figures remain sky high.
Workers who have been without a job for a year or more remain central to South Africa’s jobless crisis. Workers trapped in long-term unemployment made up 67% of all the unemployed (6,1 million workers) in 2017. According to the national statistical agency, in the first half 2022, workers plunged into long-term joblessness soared to 79% of the unemployed (7,9 million workers).
Youth unemployment in South Africa is also worsening. In 2017, the unemployment rate among youth (aged 15-24) stood at 53%. The latest information from Statistics South Africa shows that this figure increased to 65% in 2021. (StatsSA, Quarterly Labour Force Survey, 2008-2022; https://www.statssa.gov.za/?cat=31). Six out of ten South Africans between the ages of 15 and 35 are not economically active, and nearly two million young jobseekers are discouraged, having given up hope on finding a job. More than 13.8 million South Africans live below the food poverty line of R890 per month. (Mail& Guardian Online, 3 Aug 2022)
In a report titled Has the Social Profile of the Marginalised Youth Improved in the Eastern Cape? published by the Eastern Cape Socio Economic Consultative Council (ECSECC) in May 2022, the stark social realities for Eastern Cape young people (15 – 34 years old) are revealed. The report reveals a decrease from 2.3 to 2.0 million (10.4%) in the number of young people in the province; they tend to move to Gauteng and Western Cape provinces in search of jobs. Also, for youth aged 15-34, the province has the highest unemployment rate in the country: it grew from 41.6% in 2014 to 62.6% in 2020. In 2020 approximately 22% of households in the province were headed by young people. For the period 2014 and 2021, discouraged young jobseekers in the province increased from 7.7 to 11.7 percent.
In the Eastern Cape province and specifically East London/Buffalo City Metro, the employment situation is reflected in the following facts: (1) Population in the province = 6.56 million. In the Buffalo City Metro (BCM) it is 726 000 . (2) In Eastern Cape 33.4% of households are involved in agricultural activities (StatsSA, General Household Survey, 2021). (3) The percentage distribution of sources of household income for the Eastern Cape is as follows: salary – 46.2%; social grants – 63.7%; income from a business – 9.6%; remittances – 20.9% and pensions – 5.6%. (4) For BCM the distribution of income is 45.4% from salaries, 41% from social grants and 19.2% from other sources.
The vulnerability and precarity revealed in these figures call for radical alternatives to be found.
Given the youth unemployment rate, many street corners in East London city sees someone selling fruit and vegetables or some other gadgets. These are the parents that are expected to provide for families by putting food on the table. Every second house is a shebeen or tavern due to this situation. The few that are employed work well over forty hours a week. They hardly spend time with their families because they leave early in the morning and arrive late in the evening, dog tired.
This is a very concerning situation given that youth of today and their needs cannot be adequately taken care of. How does one begin to parent effectively? There are people already in their thirties and above who do not know what it is to have a job. The protection of the interests of the rich by the government (by embracing neo-liberal policies of the World Bank and IMF) is the reason for the untold misery for the mass of the population, thus the alarming crime rate.
The government must take responsibility for all this mess and stop blaming parents, and the working class and the peasants must continue to demand:
• The right to work, which must be implemented both via the institution of a necessary adjustment to the length of the working week to provide employment for all. There must be no reduction in wages.
• The introduction of a public works programme with the full representation of the unemployed in its management.
• A single progressive tax system, the abolition of VAT and all indirect taxes that fall on so heavy on the poor.
We call for the self-organisation and united independent struggle of the labouring masses and the unemployed