Youth unemployment as a tool of oppression

In the lead-up to the budget speech, the Minister of Finance Mr. Enoch Godongwana used

unemployment as justification for increasing VAT, despite SARS Commissioner Mr. Edward

Kieswetter, warning that this approach has never been effective in the past. 

He further threatened that if VAT were not raised, 19,000 teaching jobs would be lost. This is

psychological manipulation at its finest, exploiting fear while knowing full well that these job

losses would only add to the existing 12 million unemployed and depressed South African

youth. 

In fact, the Gauteng government has leveraged youth unemployment in exchange for

political support and votes. After the elections, 66,000 people—mostly young and

Black—lost their jobs and Gauteng premier admitted that these jobs were for elections.

Oppression is scholarly defined as mental pressure or distress. Youth unemployment creates

immense psychological strain, leading to depression and desperation. 

This vulnerability and desperation is then exploited by both the government and the private sector, which impose high workloads, low wages, and increased profits at the expense of young workers. 

Therefore, youth unemployment also affects those employed in case of high workload, etc.

The sense of déjà vu is understandable, these same mental pressures were experienced under apartheid, making it easier for the ANC to mobilise resistance at the time. However, the key difference today is that this oppression is systemic rather than brutally enforced and the one in charge of this oppression is the ANC this time.

Furthermore, youth unemployment has reversed hard-won gender equality struggles. Many

women are forced to endure sexual exploitation for employment, such as interns hoping for

permanent contracts. A recent example is the suspension of one of the Eastern Cape

department head, accused of coercing interns into sexual relationships with the promise of job security. The Department of Education has also taken advantage of unemployment by hiring qualified educators as Education Assistants (EAs), paying them significantly less than a standard teaching salary. 

Unexplainable rationale for this is that these are temporary measures. This again illustrates how systemic oppression relies on voluntary exploitation, fuelled by fears of poverty, failure, and job insecurity.

At the household level, studies have linked unemployment (destitute) to increased gender-

based violence, which disproportionately affects women and children. Meanwhile, youth

organisations such as the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) have been reduced to employment

pipelines for municipal, government, and ministerial positions, stripping them of their ability

to advocate for young people. 

In fact, placing at a position of being oppressors if inference is that today’s bureaucrats are systematically oppressing South African youth. As a result, youth are left vulnerable, exploited, deprived of opportunities, and manipulated by their employers. If youth unemployment is being used as a tool of oppression, then it follows that the rights of young South Africans are being systematically violated.

Those who benefit from the oppression of youth are, by definition, the oppressors. By this

logic, South Africa’s former liberators can now be seen as new oppressors. Youth

employment has long been used as a tool of oppression, a trend that dates back to apartheid.

During that time, job opportunities for young people were highly exploitative, operating on a

“take it or leave it” basis. It was only by the year 2000, youth unemployment counting by StatsSA included all South Africans and exceeded 50% of unemployed youth. Scientifically, this highlights that unemployment existed during apartheid, but it was accompanied by severe exploitation and exposure to unemployment-related mental illnesses.

This issue concerns social workers, as unemployment directly impacts the state of social

welfare. A key social work theoretical framework for understanding this is the theory of

oppression, integrated with systems theory. These perspectives explain how youth

unemployment and oppression create widespread consequences, at a societal level, within

communities, families, and for individuals.

Therefore, youth unemployment is more than just an economic issue, it exacerbates

inequalities, and oppresses. Civic organisations advocating for human rights should adopt a

broader perspective, recognising the link between youth unemployment, oppression, and

human rights violations. If we agree with the humanities principle that prevention is better

than cure, then employment should be seen as a key preventive measure against issues such as gender-based violence and inequality.