President of UAT Doctor Bantu Wanda Mahlatsi
By Doer Mighty Mabule
UAT Head of Communications & National Spokesperson
United Africans Transformation (UAT) expresses deep sorrow and anger over the rising tide of youth unemployment a national shame that exposes the growing disconnect between government promises and the lived realities of ordinary people.
According to the latest figures released by Statistics South Africa,the country’s unemployment rate has risen to 32.9%, with more than 8.2 million South Africans now out of work.
Most disturbingly, youth unemployment has climbed to a staggering 46.1%, up from 44.6% in the previous quarter.
In real numbers, that means over 151,000 more young people are jobless, while 153,000 youth jobs were lost in just three months.
While Youth Month is meant to honour the fearless spirit of the 1976 generation, young people today are being left behind, forced to watch their dreams crumble under the weight of unemployment, poverty, and political neglect.
A new generation is trapped in a cycle of waiting: waiting for callbacks, waiting for internships, waiting for jobs that never come.
While the GNU preaches inclusivity and dialogue, it continues to preserve the same exclusionary systems that have failed the African child for decades.
Instead of urgent, people-driven transformation, the GNU offers only elite pacts and bureaucratic inertia.
Their solutions are theoretical; our people’s hunger is real.
UAT is demanding immediate and concrete action to address the crisis facing South Africa’s youth, calling for a Youth Jobs Guarantee to ensure no young person remains unemployed for more than six months without work, training, or public service opportunities.
They propose massive investment in youth-owned businesses, particularly in marginalized areas, alongside the rollout of free, community-based skills centres offering practical training in high-demand fields.
Rejecting empty promises, UAT declares that the future is a collective responsibility one that requires urgent action, organization, andvtransformation, urging young people to seize their power and build inclusive structures rather than waiting for change.
This Youth Month, they affirm that the era of survival must end, and the time for true transformation is now if indeed we see our youth as a prosperity of our nation.
No Better Future with Economically Active youth.