South Africa has spent three decades expanding access to education. The next fight is different: converting qualifications into income, skills into enterprise, and political rights into economic power. Dr Shahiem Patel (Dean at Regent Business School) on what that requires and who is responsible.
According to Stats SA, in the first quarter of 2026, 60.9% of South Africans aged 15 to 24 were unemployed. When considering the number of people that are not in employment, education or training (NEET), Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey revealed that 37.6% of people aged 15-24 were in the NEET category. This is the description of a generation that has been locked out of the economy before it has had a fair chance to enter it.
As we celebrate and commemorate Youth Day in South Africa, we acknowledge and remember the courage of young people who changed the course of history. In doing so, we must not find undue comfort because the youth of 1976 showed us and generations to come, what resistance and activism truly is. They also showed us who are the chief architects of change: youth.
Our world is typified by disruption and rapid change because of technology in large part and the risk we face as a result, is that society is becoming increasingly comfortable with technology, rather than humanity driving disruption and change. The heroes of 1976 disrupted a system that denied them dignity, opportunity and self-determination. Many sacrificed their education, their futures and, in some cases, their lives. Physical and political freedom was what was at stake. Today it is perhaps not those freedoms, but economic freedom and freedom of the mind that is at stake and we must ask, should we not be doing all we can to fight for that?
This is not to romanticise the past or condemn the present. The conditions are different. Apartheid presented young people with a visible enemy, a visible state and a visible injustice. Today’s youth face a more complex system: unemployment, inequality, corruption, weak growth, underperforming schools, fragile municipalities, digital disruption and an economy that often demands experience from people it has never allowed to gain experience.
Political freedom delivered rights access. It opened institutions that had been closed to the majority. It created the possibility of economic participation. But it did not guarantee economic independence. Today, a young person can vote, study, graduate and still remain unemployed. A young person can complete a qualification and still be told they lack experience. A young person can attend an entrepreneurship workshop and still have no access to markets, mentorship or start-up capital.
This is the unfinished business of freedom.
Education still matters deeply. The problem is not that qualifications have become irrelevant. The problem is that qualifications alone are no longer enough.
South Africa has spent three decades expanding access to many things, including education. The next phase must be about conversion: converting learning into thinking, and thinking into work, skills into income, and qualifications into economic agency.
We count the number of young people trained, not the number of businesses still operating two years later. So, what then about entrepreneurship and its role in affording young people pathways to freedom? We celebrate pitch days, certificates and incubator launches; but we are less disciplined about tracking revenue growth, job creation or market access.
Entrepreneurship cannot be built through motivation alone. Young people need practical ecosystems: customers, finance, networks, digital tools, compliance support and experienced mentors.
The same applies to skills development. South Africa does not suffer from a shortage of policies, levies or programmes. It suffers from weak alignment between money spent and outcomes achieved. The purpose of skills development should not be to process learners through administrative systems. It should be to move people into work, enterprise or further learning with thoughtfulness, mindfulness and a moral compass underpinning their contribution to the world. If a programme cannot show that movement, we should ask whether it is development or merely activity and whether it is of any value.
We must also be honest about youth agency. Young South Africans are not passive, but many are exhausted, disillusioned and uncertain about where to direct their frustration. Their activism often takes different forms from previous generations: digital campaigns, social commentary, community initiatives, creative enterprise and informal economic survival. But digital expression is not always the same as organised social change.
The deeper question is whether we have lowered our expectations of young people or placed impossible expectations on them. We tell them they must take their destiny into their own hands and to be proactive in all that they do. But can we expect them solve unemployment, corruption, inequality, climate change and technological disruption, while many are still trying to secure their first stable income? I think not. At the same time, we sometimes speak about youth only as recipients of support, not as citizens with responsibility, agency and power.
Both extremes are unhelpful. Young people should not be blamed for a system they inherited. But neither should they be excused from shaping the future they will inhabit. Every generation that changed South Africa had to sacrifice something. The sacrifice required today may not be the same as 1976, but it is still real: the discipline to acquire relevant skills, the courage to build enterprises, the responsibility to participate politically, and the willingness to organise beyond complaint.
Government, business and education institutions must also stop treating youth development as a slogan. First, public and private funding for education and skills programmes should be tied to measurable outcomes. Enrolment and completion are not enough.
Second, every business and professional qualification should embed AI literacy, entrepreneurship and work-integrated learning as core competencies. These should not be optional extras for privileged students. They are now basic tools for economic participation.
Third, employer-education partnerships should become part of formal corporate accountability. Companies that claim to invest in skills development should report how many young people they place, mentor, retain and promote.
The youth of 1976 fought for political freedom. The youth of 2026 face a different struggle: economic freedom in a country that has opened the door but left too many standing outside. The responsibility does not rest with young people alone. But it cannot exclude them either.
Each generation must decide what it is prepared to build, disrupt and sacrifice for the next. South Africa’s next youth struggle will be won by converting education into opportunity, frustration into organisation, and political freedom into economic power.
Author Bio:
Born and bred in Johannesburg, Dr Shahiem Patel holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Law, an Honours degree in Business Management, a Master of Commerce in Leadership Studies and a Doctor of Philosophy in Leadership. He joined Regent Business School in 2019, leading the institution’s flagship Master of Business programme on a new journey towards innovation, technology and making the students happy.
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