FAILURE TO ADRESS SOUTH AFRICA’S DEEPENING UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS

FAILURE TO ADRESS SOUTH AFRICA’S DEEPENING UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS 

BY : CHANON LECODEY MERRICKS ONLINE EDITOR KASiBC_AFRiCA

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MK WOMEN’S LEAGUE CONDEMNS FAILURE TO ADRESS SOUTH AFRICA’S DEEPENING UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS 

The uMkhonto weSizwe Women’s League (MKWL) strongly condemns the continued failure of the so-called Government of National Unity (GNU) to address the deepening unemployment crisis facing millions of South Africans. 

According to Stats SA’s Quarter 1 2026 Labour Force Survey released on 12 May 2026, the official unemployment rate has increased from 31.4% to 32.7%, with approximately 345,000 jobs lost and the number of unemployed people rising to 8.1 million. 

The expanded unemployment rate, which includes discouraged work-seekers, has reached a staggering 43.7%, while 4.7 million young people between the ages of 15 and 34 remain unemployed. South Africa continues to have one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. At a time when South Africans expected urgent economic interventions and decisive leadership, the GNU has instead presided over worsening poverty, collapsing living conditions, rising food prices and growing hopelessness amongst the youth and working class. 

These figures confirm that the current administration has no coherent plan to revive the economy or create sustainable employment opportunities. 

The MKWL is particularly concerned that women and young people continue to carry the heaviest burden of this economic failure. Young graduates remain unemployed for years, working-class mothers are struggling to feed their families, and entire communities are being abandoned to poverty while government prioritises elite political arrangements over the material conditions of ordinary people. In addition, there is a growing crisis within the health sector that reflects the broader failure of workforce planning and employment absorption in critical professions. 

A significant number of South African medical graduates, including qualified doctors who have completed their studies and are awaiting placement for internships, community service, or permanent posts, remain unemployed or underutilised. This persists despite public hospitals often reporting staffing shortages and continued reliance on foreigntrained medical professionals to fill essential service gaps. 

This contradiction highlights serious inefficiencies in human resource planning within the public health system and the broader economy’s inability to absorb skilled graduates. The GNU presents itself as a solution to South Africa’s crises; however, conditions continue to deteriorate under its leadership. Rather than prioritising industrialisation, economic sovereignty, infrastructure development and large-scale job creation, the GNU has persisted with failed neoliberal economic policies that benefit big business while excluding the poor and the black majority from meaningful economic participation. 

The MKWL maintains that South Africa cannot overcome unemployment without a radical restructuring of the economy that places the interests of workers, women, youth and the poor at the centre of development. We reject an economy where profits are prioritised over people and where government remains passive while industries decline and jobs disappear. 

We therefore call for: • An urgent national job creation programme targeting women and youth.

 • Massive investment in local industries, manufacturing, agriculture and infrastructure. 

• Support for township and rural economies. 

• Protection of workers from retrenchments and exploitative labour practices. 

• Economic policies that advance genuine transformation and black economic empowerment at scale. 

• Accountability from the GNU for its failure to address the unemployment crisis. 

The MKWL reiterates that unemployment is not merely an economic issue, but a social crisis that fuels poverty, crime, gender-based violence, substance abuse and social instability. Government cannot continue treating the suffering of the people as normal. The MKWL will intensify its mobilisation programmes across the country and mobilise South African women to reject the current government and its failed policies. 

We call upon women, youth, workers and all progressive forces to unite behind the uMkhonto weSizwe Party in the upcoming local government elections as the only genuine alternative capable of restoring the dignity of the people of South Africa. 

The uMkhonto weSizwe Party represents the aspirations of the poor and working class and remains committed to building an economy that prioritises job creation, economic justice, service delivery and the total emancipation of black people in particular and South Africans in general. 

The people of South Africa deserve a government that serves them with integrity, decisiveness and commitment to genuine transformation. 

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