February 03, 2026.

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Halima Frost.

Making headlines:

ANC Youth League wants youth unemployment declared national disaster

Rand Water overstretching assets to meet high demand

And, Africa faces $90bn debt wall in 2026

ANC Youth League wants youth unemployment declared national disaster

The African National Congress Youth League 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, 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.

Rand Water overstretching assets to meet high demand

Water utility Rand Water has raised concern over persistent high water demand.

The utility said in a statement that it is overstretching its assets to accommodate the high consumption, which is also slowing down the recovery process after an outage.

The continued high water consumption by the cities of Johannesburg and Tshwane is placing strain on the overall water supply network.

Rand Water is currently producing about 5 000-million litres of water a day, 77% of which is consumed by the three metropolitans Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg.

While its systems have fully recovered and pumping is at full capacity after an outage in Midrand, reducing the high consumption is a major contributor in speeding up the recovery process.

Africa faces $90bn debt wall in 2026

S&P Global Ratings has cautioned that African governments face rising debt risks as hard-currency repayment schedules in 2026 increase pressure on external buffers, contributing to rollover risks.

The agency's latest African sovereign outlook report shows that government external debt repayments are now over three times larger than in 2012.

S&P's Benjamin Young wrote in the report that structurally high debt and low, concentrated revenue bases will continue to pose key risks and, with government external debt repayments likely to exceed $90-billion this year, external vulnerabilities have also increased.

Government external debt repayments are approaching a peak, he said.

Egypt accounts for nearly one-third of this year's tally with $27-billion due in principal repayments, followed by Angola, South Africa, and Nigeria.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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