Maimane: Where are the jobs, Zuma?

Johannesburg - "Where are the jobs, President [Jacob] Zuma?" Democratic Alliance Parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane, asked on Monday, addressing a Youth Day rally in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria.

"While we are struggling here, it is all pleasurable in Nkandla. Their cattle eat KFC," he said.

Maimane said the money spent on upgrades to Zuma's Nkandla homestead could have been better used to build classrooms equipped with technology.

"If you are 18 today, your chances of finding work are getting less and less under the current government. A job is a first step out of poverty. It is a step towards freedom," Maimane said.

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Senzo Mchunu said in a statement "the central question facing the youth today is deepening democracy and expanding opportunities to the previously disadvantaged communities that continue to be mired in the triangle of poverty, inequality and unemployment".

He said that the KwaZulu-Natal government would soon announce new strategies to fast-track youth empowerment.

The Abahlali baseMjondolo Youth League said in a statement that landless youth faced a bleak future, with few prospects for education and work.

In Galeshewe, in the Northern Cape, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said a co-ordinated and multi-pronged response to youth unemployment was needed.

"If we can effectively address youth unemployment, not only will we lift millions of South Africans out of poverty, but we will also place our economy on a trajectory of sustainable, inclusive growth," said Ramaphosa.