South Africans balance hope and despair

Problems remain even as apartheid becomes a distant memory

- MARTIN PLAUT

ACCORDING to data released by global market research firm Ipsos in September, 80% of South Africans say their country is on the wrong track. It is not hard to see why.

Even if they are not among the white Afrikaners who have sought refugee status in the US, courtesy of President Donald Trump’s controversial policy to protect them from the discrimination he alleges they are facing, there is a great deal for ordinary men and women in South Africa to complain about. And with nearly 60% of the population born after apartheid ended in 1994, the government's attempts to frame the hardships faced by its people as the result of past repression have decreasing relevance.

The most obvious problem is perhaps the failure for standards of living to improve. The ANC has overseen flatlining or declining GDP per capita for more than 15 years, according to a two-year study published in 2023 by Harvard University.

Worse still, the study showed that unemployment has risen by 0.5% on average every year since the ANC came to power in 1994. This has left the majority of young men and women in South Africa without any prospect of earning a living. As the South African Department of Statistics reported in May 2025: “Among the 4.8 million unemployed youth in the first quarter of 2025, 58.7% reported having no previous work experience. That means nearly six in ten unemployed young people are still waiting for their first opportunity to enter the job market.” It continued: “Without experience, youth struggle to get hired — yet without being hired, they cannot gain experience. This cycle of exclusion continues to fuel long-term unemployment and stalls skills development at a critical stage of life”