Unemployed young graduates who were told by President Cyril Ramaphosa to “keep looking” for work have expressed anger and frustration at the president's response.
In a video that went viral on social media, Surindkule Khoza had a brief conversation with a 71-year-old man during a short stay at an orange farm over the weekend.
The experience left her feeling “disappointed” and “frustrated.”
Woman 'frustrated' after meeting with President Ramaphosa
In a video posted by Presidential Digital Communications Director Ati Gereba, Cyril Ramaphosa is seen talking to a young woman wearing an ANC shirt.
The woman – Slindokuhle Khoza – is a 23-year-old communications graduate from North West University.
After Khoza explained that he was unemployed and had been looking for work for more than a year, the president told him: He has to keep looking.
When Mr Ramaphosa told her to register on the government's labor portal, Mr Khoza replied: “I am registered.”
When you talk to sowetanKhoza claimed she felt “devastated” by the president's comments.
She said: “I thought I could get some sort of job out of the conversation with him. Looking back at the video now, I realized that maybe I could ask him for help or do something. I can't help but feel irritated that it might have happened.
“I regret the way we went about that conversation. When he said I should keep looking because I've been looking for so long, I felt sorry and told him so. I was devastated.
Khoza, who found temporary work as a cleaner, was repeatedly rejected despite being told that her resume was impressive.
She continued: She said, “Even though I have a degree, it makes no sense to rely so heavily on my mother for everything. It's not a good thing, especially since she still has to take care of my three younger brothers.'' ”
While Ms Khoza said she was grateful to have received the child support grant and the NSFAS research grant, she insisted she did not relate to Mr Ramaphosa's analogy of a “tintswalo” born into democracy.
unemployed graduate student SA numbers
According to Statistica, statistics for the fourth quarter of 2023 revealed that 32.1 per cent of South Africans are unemployed. One-third of these were university graduates.
PricewaterhouseCoopers also claims that this number has increased significantly over the decade.
According to the auditors, this may be due to the following factors:
- skills mismatch
- Uncompetitive skills in the global market
- Degrees not in demand
Degrees in demand
According to Regent Business School, the most in-demand degrees today are in healthcare, technology and business.
BusinessTech predicts that jobs in these fields will also increase over the next five years…
- business management,
- finance,
- information technology (IT);
- sales, and
- admin, office, support.
