A T-shirt from South African streetwear brand GALXBOY, founded by Thatiso Dube, Medium Business Entrepreneur of the Year winner.
As South Africa marks 50 years since the 1976 Soweto Uprising under the national theme RESET@50: The Future Calls, the country is being asked to shift the narrative from seeing young people as just part of the unemployment problem to recognising them as potential solutions providers and co-creators of today and the future. The call is to empower this generation by transferring leadership, not only stories, and to transform the future by advancing economic inclusion for all young people.
It is a call landing in a country where the need is real. Youth unemployment stands at 45.8%, according to Stats SA's latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey, and of the roughly 10.3 million young people aged 15 to 24, 37.6% are not in employment, education or training.
Entrepreneurs are where that gap gets closed, with the National Development Plan placing the responsibility of creating 90% of all jobs in South Africa on Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) by 2030. A new generation of founders is rising to that challenge, using digital tools, AI and alternative funding to build businesses that would have been out of reach a decade ago.
