SA's youth are waiting, but opportunities never arrive

Each morning, I would scramble past stray dogs, leap over sticky puddles and sidestep sharp rocks along the 4km footpath from my home towards the R617 main road.

- Themba Dlamini

Somewhere along that dirt road, the old Sevontein school bus would thunder past us as we were still walking. It had just powered through the 6km stretch between Sevontein Prison and the neighbouring villages a rough route that skorokoro taxis avoided for fear of a shredded suspension and busted axles.

Off it went to Pietermaritzburg, carting the children of prison wardens to model C schools, leaving the rest of us to beat the hard ground underfoot, every day.

That brown, battered bus didn't just transport bodies. It carried a message: “Some of us deserve comfort. The rest can walk.”

And walk we did. Some until Grade 10. Some until hope gave out. It wasn't ambition we lacked. It was access.

Today, the bus has changed shape. It's no longer rusted and backfiring. It's the polished, air-conditioned world of internships, networks, private schools and seed funding. But it still only stops for a few. And it still leaves most of our young people standing in the dust, watching the future speed by.

South Africa's youth population has ballooned - nearly two-thirds of the population is now under the age of 35, according to Stats SA. Every year, more than 500,000 young people leave school and enter a labour market that has simply not grown with them.