A can-do attitude and innovative ideas will pave the future

This month of June is especially prescient as it marks the 49th anniversary of the Soweto student uprisings, just one year short of the big five-zero.

- • DON MAKATILE

While the youth of 1976 had one identifiable enemy, the monster Apartheid state that was hell-bent on imposing Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in schools, the 2025 cohort have their own ogre to contend with, which is unemployment.

The official unemployment rate stood at 32. 9% in the first quarter of this year according to Statistics South Africa. Of this depressing statistic, which translates into nearly one-third of the South African workforce being currently jobless, the youth unemployment rate is a staggering 46. 1%. The youth refer to people between the ages of 15-34.

Once they leave school, contemporary youth find they are faced with bleak job prospects, only to twiddle their thumbs at home and swell the ranks of the unemployed. Among the unemployed youth are university graduates.

The Tintswalos - in the analogy of President Cyril Ramaphosa - in the ensuing pages know best that their future is not dependent on the R370 grants of the generous Nanny State but their own resolve to roll their sleeves up, and put in the work.