An unemployment rate of more than 30% is the 'new normal' for South Africa, an insidious indicator that has defined this decade and Cyril Ramaphosa's presidency. And it could yet scale and surpass the record of 35.3% reached in Q4 2021.
South Africa's woeful unemployment situation is on a descent from terrible to Hell on Earth, a state of affairs that will exacerbate poverty and inequality and fan the flames of social unrest in a vicious cycle that will perpetuate this seemingly intractable challenge.
In the first quarter (Q1) of this year, the unemployment rate rose by 1.3 percentage points from the previous three-month period to 32.7% -- a level that should be shocking but remains unsurprising, as the last time the number was below 30% was in Q2 of 2020.
Read more Unemployment rate rises 1.3 percentage points to 32.7% May 12, 2026
An unemployment rate of over 30% is the "new normal" for South Africa, an insidious indicator that has defined this decade and Cyril Ramaphosa's presidency. And it could yet surpass the record of 35.3% reached in Q4 2021.
The reasons for this are many, but they are never addressed with the required seriousness and urgency -- a reflection ultimately of state failure.
South Africa, as my colleague Rebecca Davis recently reminded us, placed last among 57 countries in the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study. The failure of a state school...
