South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has appealed to the country’s youth not to give up hope for a brighter future as his government is doing its best to assist them.
“Youth unemployment is a national crisis,” the president admitted as he addressed a crowd in the northern city of Polokwane during International Youth Day commemorations on Sunday.
Appealing to the private sector to help government to ease unemployment among the youth, the president saluted the youth involved in the 1976 Soweto uprising who paid in blood to advance the country’s freedom struggle on 16 June of that year.
In this regard, he also acknowledged the resilience displayed by the youth of today.
“We salute your resilience. Many of you are too young to have experienced the injustices of apartheid, but many of you continue to live with the effects of that injustice that was perpetrated on our people,” Ramaphosa said.
He called on the young people not to lose hope.
“Do not grow impatient; we know that the challenges that you face propel one to become impatient. But we are saying, ‘Do not lose hope. Do not let the sun set on your ambitions, your plans and your dreams’,” he told a packed marquee at a cricket ground.
The president highlighted that half of those aged 15 to 24 years old were unemployed, frustrating many young people in the country.
He likened this frustration of being unable to find work as a “stain on the country’s conscience.”
“But the flame of 1976 continues to burn. We have to make the flame brighter and brighter,” Ramaphosa said.
NM/jn/APA