The African National Congress Youth League in the Free State says the high unemployment rate in the province should be declared as a disaster. The league marched to the premier’s office in Bloemfontein to deliver their memorandum. They demanded that 50,000 jobs be created this financial year.
ANCYL 2nd Deputy Secretary-General Olga Seate is also calling for free access to education for deserving students.
“NSFAS is not enough. We are not going to sit and wait on the expansion of the role of the state. We know that the state has got shares somewhere. It can’t be that we are an ANC-led province with no majority problems, with no GNU issues,” says Seate.
South Africa’s official unemployment rate increased by one percentage point to 32,9% in the first quarter of 2025. This is according to data released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).
The data shows an increase of 237,000 in the number of unemployed people, bringing the total to 8,2 million.
The expanded unemployment rate, which includes discouraged work-seekers, also rose by 1,2 percentage points to 43,1% in the same period.
At provincial level, the North West recorded the highest expanded unemployment rate at 56%.
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