SowetanLive reports that Slindokuhle Khoza, 23, was very excited when President Cyril Ramaphosa called her from the crowd during his walk on the streets of Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg, at the weekend when he was campaigning for the upcoming elections.

In their short conversation captured on video, the president can be heard asking her about her background to which she replied she was unemployed. In his response, Ramaphosa advised her to "keep searching", a statement that sparked outrage among social media users. Khoza said the statement deflated her following initial joy and hope for being called over for a conversation by the president. "I regret the way that conversation went. I felt disappointed when he said I should keep looking because I have been looking and I told him that. I was crushed,” said Khoza. She graduated with a bachelor of arts in communication from North West University last year. “I started applying way before I graduated but even that didn’t help because I kept getting rejection responses,” said the first-born of four children raised by a single mother. Ramaphosa's spokesperson said the president encouraged Khoza to register on the SA youth mobi, which is a zero-rated platform for unemployed young people to access opportunities for learning and earning.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Koena Mashale at SowetanLive
• Read too, Mixed reaction as Ramaphosa tells unemployed woman to ‘keep searching’ for job, at The Citizen

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page