South Africa's Youth Crises

The youth crisis in South Africa is associated with the following core factors in the microeconomic and macroeconomic factors, among others: (1) low employability of the majority of youths from low-class households (mainly blacks); (2) high mortality rate of startups/early-stage enterprises; (3) weak alignment of pro-youth interventions to empowerment needs of the unemployed youths; and (4) poor attitude towards work and life by many black youths. At the macroeconomic level, the challenges related to (a) weak linkages of the fast-growing hi-tech sectors where much of the growth takes place with the primary and secondary sectors of the economy; (b) low effectiveness and efficiency of public services delivery; (c) sluggish economic growth; (d) a fast-growing public debt profile; and (e) growing energy security challenges.