President Cyril Ramaphosa revealed that unemployment keeps him awake at night. Our country’s unemployment rate stands at a staggering 29%. At the individual and social levels, we are witnessing a tragedy of major proportions, which no civilised society should tolerate.
The various schemes launched by the government proved banal. This economic tragedy can easily become a disaster and could catalyse a violent upheaval in our dangerously imbalanced society.
Unemployment leads to poverty on a massive scale and is a major factor in the increasing rate of crime in urban areas. Our economy is experiencing a crisis in creeping unemployment that has enormous human and economic costs. It is a ticking time bomb and can undermine social cohesion and political stability.
No one can afford to overlook the seriousness of chronic unemployment, certainly not the government of the day, because when disgruntlement finds expression, the only solutions, which are bound to be brutal, will have adverse consequences for our country, its internal stability and its reputation.
When the masses of unemployed rise, the social and political map of our country will be changed forever. – Farouk Araie
