Unemployment may be among the biggest challenges facing the youth of South Africa. But, there is a possible way out.
By: Joshua Maluleke
Throughout the world, young people are considered a major human resource for development. This is because they are often the engine behind societal change, economic expansion and innovation. Their exuberance, creativity and vision are essential for development, and to instil hope when nations are faced with harsh realities.
The 1976 youth bears testimony. Faced with apartheid, this generation did not agonise, but organised to fight the challenges of the day. They sought to understand the complete lay of the land for their struggle, worked on the best strategies to defeat the enemy, and thus helped in increasing the pace for political change in South Africa.
Forty years later, SA’s most pressing challenges are unemployment, abject poverty and inequality. These challenges affect the youth most. Can we assume that when the current generation of young South Africans work together, they will bring an end to unemployment? No. It is undeniably true that a united youth can achieve a lot in society, as evident by the victories registered by the #FeesMustFall movement, last year. But, ending joblessness and poverty is a far bigger task – albeit a lot of effort is required.
South Africa’s failure to arrest the perennial economic challenge of high unemployment, especially for the youth, is well-documented. Compounding this is the increasing challenge of growing the economy that has yet to fully recover from the global meltdown of 2008/2009. Since that recession, SA’s annual economic growth has been on a decline. Because of this, many big corporates can no longer hire enough people, thousands others are retrenching their employees, and many graduates are forced to stay home because of fewer job opportunities.
Entrepreneurship – a slippery concept to define – is probably the only option that can improve SA’s economic fortunes. While the jury is still out on its common definition, many economists, business people, academics, governments and commentators agree that it is a necessary ingredient for stimulating economic growth and employment opportunities.
The latest report by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor on SA paints a bleak picture of the entrepreneurial activity in our country. SA’s is now the third-largest economy in Africa, but remains the most advanced and modern. It has one of the best banking systems in the world, infrastructure is also among the best, and it has political stability and other factors that should enable it to produce more entrepreneurs than other countries.
Despite all this, why is it not a paradise of entrepreneurs? There are many reasons to this, among them being the national psyche, culture and attitude of citizens towards entrepreneurship as a viable career choice and lifestyle. Many take a dim view on being entrepreneurs, and the few who manage to start their own ventures are usually met by failure; most of their enterprises hardly survive the first year in business.
This is partly because our country has a wrong educational system philosophy. It trains children at schools and later in colleges, universities and institutions of higher learning to become employees, and not employers. Those who go to these learning centres are trained to come out with CVs looking for jobs as employees. This is not a bad thing, as not all of us will be entrepreneurs. But, it is time to not only train them to be employees, but to also train them to come out with business plans, looking for platforms and opportunities to start companies and create employment. In this way, the youth will have amassed the necessary business and entrepreneurial skills to start businesses that will survive beyond 12 months, and also make a difference (create jobs, develop communities, etc) as active corporate citizens.
While acknowledging that almost every sector in society, both private and public, is playing its role, it is not enough. We can no longer afford to work in silos; the entrepreneurship ecosystem in SA is fragmented, and needs to be integrated and well-coordinated. SA can make a dent in the economic challenges faced by its youth, by promoting the improved culture and practice of entrepreneurship through channeling resources to commonly defined and shared entrepreneurship objectives. The theory and practice of entrepreneurship needs to reach a ‘tipping point’; that magical moment, according to Malcom Gladwell, when an idea, trend or social behaviour crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.
Making the improved culture and practice of entrepreneurship fashionable can be a deal breaker for our (marginalised) youth.
It is unfortunate that in most parts of the world, including SA, the youth does not constitute the most developed category of people in society. As a result, they are victims of many social ills that are brought about by under-development. South Africa’s most pressing challenges are the high rate of unemployment, abject poverty and inequality, and these ‘evil triplets’ as some have come to call them, affect our youth more than other citizens.
Joshua is an author of Entrepreneurship 101 and a regular columnist for BONA Magazine
