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Cape Town – The youth revolts in South Africa are because if an economic crisis and if it is not improved, the results will be the same as what happened in North Africa for instance.
This is according to Buti Manamela, Deputy Minister in the Presidency, who was the keynote speaker at the first Young Africa Works Summit held in Cape Town.
"Some say it is government's responsibility to solve these issues, like education, but there is a collective responsibility with the private sector."
The summit, hosted by the MasterCard Foundation, aims to find practical solutions to create and sustain jobs for the youth in Africa. This year’s summit focuses on the agricultural sector, since the majority of young people employed in sub-Sahara Africa are involved in agriculture.
Manamela said it is very important to address policy, political and social issues that prevented the youth from participating in the agricultural sector.
“We want this summit to help turn the youth into the demographic dividend Africa so desperately needs in order to reach its full potential.”
Youth unemployment is a big challenge on the continent with its more than 200 million young people, and in his view the aim should be for the youth to become creators of jobs instead of seekers of jobs.
To underscore this, he said the government will soon announce interventions to make higher education more accessible.
He said it is important to have greater access to higher education in South Africa so that young people can make a greater contribution to the country’s economy.
He stressed it must also be about quality of education.
Agriculture key to unlock youth jobs
On agriculture, Manamela said there are four issues to address to get more youth involved in the sector. The first is access to land.
“Land ownership by young people and black people is still low, for various reasons, including finance,” he said.
The second issue for him is a lack of interest among the youth in the agricultural sector as they regard it as subsistence farming.
“Agriculture can no longer be regarded as hard labour. Subsistence farming is not enough. The youth need the skills to manage the technical side of farming,” he said.
Manamela also complained about what he calls monopolies in the agricultural sector in Africa.
“In SA a lack of access to technology has isolated certain participants. The big question is, therefore, how to promote small players in the sector,” he said.
The third important issue he raised is labour. This involves issues from low wages to inflexible labour laws.
“The youth would have to be able to earn a good wage in order for them to be interested in working the land,” said Manamela.
Fourthly, he said the youth must be encouraged and supported to be entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector. This does not only involve financial support, but support all along the value chain.
“They must become creators of jobs in the end, instead of seekers of jobs,” he said, adding that South Africa is suffering the severest drought since the 1920s and "we need innovation to see the agricultural sector through”.
Manamela called on African governments and the private sector to follow MasterCard’s example in contributing to solving the challenges of youth unemployment in Africa. He pointed out that African leaders themselves have indicated in the past that youth unemployment on the continent is a crisis.
