TimesLIVE reports that Deputy President Paul Mashatile says more needs to be done to address the “youth unemployment ticking time bomb”.

Speaking on Tuesday at the launch of the SA national human development report 2022 in Pretoria, Mashatile thanked the UN Development Programme for shining light on the government's blind spots and indicated: “The challenge is not a lack of programmes, it is the effectiveness, acceleration and massification of our programmes.” He agreed with the UNDP's sentiments that “there is no doubt that the high unemployment rate is a ticking time bomb”. Earlier, the UN's resident co-ordinator in SA, Nelson Muffuh, painted a grim picture of the high unemployment plaguing the population, especially the youth. To undress unemployment, Mashatile said, the government was pursuing several youth empowerment programmes, including the Youth Employment Service Programme launched in 2018. He pointed out that the government had also launched the public service graduate internship and learnership programme to give young people work experience. Another initiative was the National Rural Youth Service Corps.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Amanda Khoza at TimesLIVE
• Read too, ‘Youth unemployment threatens social and political stability in SA’, at IOL

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