The ANC Youth League has called on young people not to abandon the ANC during the November local government elections because of the high unemployment rate.
Speaking to the Mail & Guardian, the league’s secretary general, Tsakani Shiviti, said many South Africans knew the party had improved people’s lives and hope remained that it would do better.
Shiviti said free education for young people has been one of the ANC’s many achievements during its tenure in government.
“Some of us would not have gone to school if the ANC did not have policies that assist us to attend school, especially university. For me, it would have been too expensive and I would not have been able to go to school. This was done by the ANC,” she said.
Two weeks ago, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) announced that the youth unemployment rate had risen to 47.4%, meaning almost one in every two young people cannot find a job. The latest figures show that five million youth aged 15 to 34 were unemployed in the second quarter of 2026, an increase of 264 000 from the first quarter.
Many of the youth have blamed the unemployment crisis on the ANC and vowed not to vote for the party in the elections.
The ANCYL has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare unemployment a state of disaster.
“We cannot abandon the ANC because we say that we are not employed. Be in the ANC and push to be in the ANC because we know when the ANC is in government, it pushes for strategic policies that assist us as young people,” Shiviti said.
“It is not only unemployment but also many other areas. Yes, we do have a problem with unemployment and we are looking to the government to resolve those problems but the government alone will not solve the problem; it will be resolved by all role players.
“We are faced with the problems of today and we are relevant to the problems of today. The ANCYL is very much relevant. It is this generation of young people, including myself, that fought for fees when they were skyrocketing.”
Last week, Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union president Thulani Ngwenya questioned the relevance of the ANCYL and the Young Communist League, accusing both of entangling themselves in matters that had nothing to do with them.
“The youth of 1976 understood that what was happening was part and parcel of the much broader struggle over who has power in South Africa and whose lives were allowed to matter if they did not challenge the status quo,” Ngwenya said.
“You can’t stand up and say: ‘Everything will be fixed.’ Who will fix it? If you don’t challenge the status quo, you are a factory fault. The youth of 1976 marked a turning point in this journey towards democracy. We would not have been here if they had not challenged Afrikaans.”
Shiviti said the people who raised such issues were irrelevant during their time but were now able to call themselves leaders.
She said the ANCYL leadership fought for free education and was focused on fighting to ensure the country rid itself of unemployment.
“One thing for sure, we will never be that generation that fought in 1976. We have problems with young people today, unless people want us to go back to their times.
“We might not be relevant to older people because we can’t do what elders are doing; we are doing what young people are doing and young people are fighting for youth unemployment, opportunities and skills. Those are the things we are raising every day.
“We want to make sure young people are represented, especially as mayoral candidates, PR councillors and ward councillors, as we are pushing a programme of generational mix.
“We are not saying we must phase out everyone and remain young people alone … We are saying that it is good for the elderly people who have served to hand over to young people. Others who are conscious have taken it upon themselves to even groom young people.”