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South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has criticised the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) for calling for youth unemployment to be declared a national disaster. <\/p>\n
On Thursday, reported that the ANCYL said millions of young South Africans are enduring a grim festive season defined not by celebration, but by joblessness, hunger, and widening economic exclusion.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the league described the holiday period as a painful reminder of deepening inequality for a generation locked out of the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cYouth unemployment remains the single greatest threat to social stability, dignity, and the future of our country,\u201d the league said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith millions of young people unable to access work, education, or economic opportunities, Christmas arrives not as a season of hope, but as a painful reminder of broken promises and deepening inequality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ANCYL warned that prolonged joblessness has fuelled dependency, mental distress, and a growing loss of purpose among the youth.<\/p>\n
Against this backdrop, the league renewed its call on President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare youth unemployment a national disaster, arguing the crisis has reached catastrophic proportions.<\/p>\n
It said such a declaration would unlock emergency powers to mobilise resources, fast-track interventions, cut red tape, and implement bold, youth-focused economic programmes at scale.<\/p>\n
The league also called on all spheres of government to prioritise mass youth employment through industrialisation, skills development, localisation, expanded public employment programmes, and targeted support for youth-owned businesses.<\/p>\n
However, on Friday, Vavi stated that the Youth League\u2019s position represents a \u201cprofound political retreat.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted that the ANCYL spokesperson Zama Khanyase insisted ANC economic policies were perfect and \u201cprogressive,\u201d despite the worsening youth unemployment crisis.<\/p>\n
When challenged on SAfm about why under such perfect policies, youth unemployment continues to rise, the spokesperson blamed \u201cnon-implementation\u201d and the constraints of the Government of National Unity (GNU), rather than policy failure.<\/p>\n
Vavi said this was \u201cconvenient\u201d and fundamentally contradictory.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo argue today that the crisis is a \u2018disaster\u2019 while simultaneously defending the very policies that produced it is an exercise in political contradiction. You cannot declare an emergency while protecting the cause,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n Reflecting on the ANCYL\u2019s past, Vavi noted that during the era of Julius Malema\u2019s NEC leadership, the Youth League\u2019s analysis closely aligned with the demands of workers in COSATU and the unemployed.<\/p>\n At that time, the crisis of youth unemployment was explicitly linked to the ANC\u2019s own economic framework, including fiscal austerity, tight monetary policy, neoliberal restructuring, and privatisation and market-led development, he said.<\/p>\n Vavi said the league then did not hide behind implementation excuses but named the policy architecture itself as the problem.<\/p>\n Vavi said this clarity has now been abandoned. He argued that the shift confirms a broader political reality: the historic left axis of youth and workers within the Tripartite Alliance has been \u201cpolitically neutralised and absorbed.\u201d<\/p>\n However, he stressed that resistance is growing outside the alliance. Vavi said the left axis outside the ANC is \u201corganising and strengthening – rooted in working-class struggle, the unemployed, community movements, and independent trade unionism.\u201d <\/p>\n He said the future of youth and worker activism will not be built on defending \u201cfailed orthodoxies\u201d but on breaking from them.<\/p>\n hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za<\/p>\n Politics <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has criticised the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) for calling for youth unemployment to be declared a national disaster. On Thursday, reported that the ANCYL said millions of young South Africans are enduring a grim festive season defined not by celebration, but by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":267264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[19964,15144,466,14578,9983,7168,4889,5087,19965,1106,12486,3694],"class_list":["post-267263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics","tag-039profound","tag-ancyls","tag-call","tag-criticises","tag-declare","tag-disaster","tag-national","tag-political","tag-retreat039","tag-unemployment","tag-vavi","tag-youth"],"yoast_head":"\n