South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced in his weekly newsletter on Monday that Government will launch a range of additional measures on Youth Day to address youth unemployment.

According to Ramaphosa, youth unemployment is his government’s biggest concern. Two weeks ago, Statistics SA released the national unemployment figures. It makes for grim reading, with the official unemployment rate growing to a record high of 32.6%.

Among the highest unemployment rates were recorded for the youth (those aged between 15 and 24) at 63.3% and those aged between 25 and 34 at 41.3%. Ramaphosa wrote that today the greatest struggle young people wage is against unemployment, something that has worsened under the Covid-19 plandemic.

He continued to say that creating more opportunities for young people, and supporting young people to access these opportunities, is government’s foremost priority. He claimed everything government did contributes towards improving the lives of young people.

He said they were driving this agenda through a series of targeted interventions, including the Presidential Employment Stimulus. On Wednesday, Ramaphosa will commemorate Youth Day at a hybrid event in KwaZulu-Natal.

Due to Alert Level 2 restrictions and the significant rise in Covid-19 infections, the commemoration will have a limited number of guests and key stakeholders, mainly youth, physically in attendance