The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) on Tuesday stated that it wants government to declare youth unemployment a national disaster, as it challenges the country’s youth to actively participate in local government by contesting as ward councillors in the upcoming Local Government Elections.

Over the weekend, the ANCYL convened its first meeting of the national executive committee (NEC), in Mpumalanga, where it said it had received a comprehensive political economy and organisational performance overview focusing on the lived realities of young people in South Africa. 

It said youth unemployment had reached crisis proportions and it wanted government to declare it a national disaster.

According to Statistics South Africa, more than 43.2% young people were not in employment, education or training in 2024. 

The youth league’s NEC wants the immediate accelerated industrialisation, localisation and expansion of public and community employment programmes.

The ANCYL said the global order was shifting and in some cases rupturing.

ANCYL secretary-general Tsakani Shiviti said global trade relations were being reconfigured, external shocks were accelerating structural change, and geopolitics had become a "decisive terrain of struggle". 

”...in this moment, neutrality is not an option, progressive forces must choose a side. In a world of constant upheaval, including the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and technological disruption, the pressure to innovate and transform is immense. 

“The rules of the game are continuously rewritten. This reality demands that South Africa position itself decisively economically, politically and socially, while advancing progressive gender relations and building a truly inclusive society that leaves no young person behind,” she said. 

The youth league wants the State to intervene in the economy to drive industrialisation, job creation and inclusive growth, through projects such as upgrading the country’s rail infrastructure, though it was emphatic that this must not be done through privatisation.

“...we reject, without compromise, all attempts to privatise or commodify State-owned infrastructure. Instead, the democratic State must mobilise developmental finance, including borrowing from the BRICS New Development Bank, to modernise and expand rail infrastructure in the interests of national development and economic sovereignty,” Shiviti said.