Between Statistics South Africa and the president, the country’s employment figures don’t quite add up.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Thursday, February 12, during his delivery of the State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Cape Town that the government has created over 2.5 million job opportunities through the Presidential Employment Stimulus, mainly for young people and women.
The president’s declaration comes as a surprise, because since the inception of the Presidential Employment Stimulus in 2021, unemployment rates for the youth (people aged 15 to 34) have been at their the highest, 44.6% in 2024 and 46.1% in 2025 according to Stats SA. While 31 000 young people got employed in 2025, another 39 000 young people became unemployed. So where exactly are the millions of jobs? Mr President show us the jobs.
Ramaphosa once again promised to create jobs through massive investment in new infrastructure, while upgrading and maintaining the existing infrastructure, and engaging local and international investors to finance this venture.
Last year, the president promised to create jobs through industries of the future, which are green manufacturing, renewable energy, electric vehicles, and the digital economy. This year, he again promised something similar. Is it possible that the president just copied and pasted this section of his speech from his 2025 speech?
Knowing that we have heard this before, what could possibly make us confident that this time things will be different?
The situation is so dire that we had over 600 job seekers queue for 50 positions at a restaurant in Durban last year. Our young people are applying to fake jobs abroad, falling prey to scams. Desperation often trumps due diligence when applying.
Perhaps, this year’s plan could be more promising as confidence is rising among investors, because South Africa is no longer on the grey list and the Rand is currently stronger than the US dollar.
Leaning towards creating jobs within our thriving agricultural sector through the introduction of 10,000 new extension officers to offer support to farmers and improve agriculture is an interesting move, I’ll give him that.
Those are 10,000 new jobs, and they are looking to improve our agriculture sector to be stronger so that we can export more. That includes avocados, maize, livestock, grapes, and wine.
Now we are waiting to see if the budget, which will be tabled on February 25, is in alignment with all the promises and reforms that the president has promised in his SONA.
FEATURED IMAGE: President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers the 2026 State of the Nation Address on February 12, 2026. Photo: Jairus Mmutle / GCIS
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