Youth joblessness a time bomb – Maimane

The high rate of unemployment among the youth is a ticking time bomb, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said.

Addressing a Youth Day rally at Fort Hare University in Alice on Saturday‚ Maimane said that for those under the age of 24‚ there was a two in three chance of being employed.

“That’s our ticking time bomb.

“We cannot even think of building a prosperous country if we don’t have a plan to bring our young people into the economy‚” Maimane said.

But while young people needed to be able to find employment‚ they were also needed to become employers.

“We need to foster a culture of entrepreneurship‚ and then do all we can to ensure that our young entrepreneurs succeed. Not just for their sake‚ but for the sake of our country. Our collective future depends on it.

“We must accept that not everyone leaving school will qualify for higher education‚ and so our plan must include a range of options.

“We must dramatically expand internships and apprenticeships for schoolleavers. But we must go beyond that and consider solutions like a year of national youth civilian service.

“Anything to enable young people to get a foot on the jobs ladder.”

Opening opportunities for youth must be an obsessive focus‚ he said.

“Ours must be a cradleto-career plan that includes improving our early childhood development centres‚ fixing our failing basic education system and expanding access to tertiary education.”