Youth unemployment in South Africa has become a millstone around the neck of the population, but the solution to the problem might be right in front of these young job-seekers.
Stats SA recently revealed that the country’s unemployment rate increased to 26,7 per cent of the labour force in the first quarter of this year.
However, twenty-six-year-old Jeremy Thembakheswa has taken his employment, and by extension the future of his financial health, into his own hands and urges the youth not to wait for opportunity but to make it happen themselves.
He started a media company in 2011, but soon realised he did not have the capital needed to take the company to where he wanted it. So he started another venture, a restaurant, to generate the capital. “The thing with being an entrepreneur is you don’t just create a job for yourself but for other people as well. I’ve created four jobs with my restaurant and two with my media company. It’s not anything big, but I’m getting there.”
All the while, Jeremy is studying law as he also realises the need for skills and formal skills development.
As for the jobless youth who depend on opportunities to present themselves, Jeremy said he thinks it’s not that people don’t want to enter the workplace as entrepreneurs – it’s the risks involved that scare them off.
“Sometimes you have to put yourself out there. You can go only as far as you want to go,” he said.
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