FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cape Town, 22 October 2026
Youth Capital notes with disappointment that Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) made no mention of youth unemployment or commitments to sustain public employment programmes, despite almost 10 million young South Africans being outside employment, education or training.
While the government has acknowledged that economic growth remains too weak to create jobs at the scale required, the MTBPS offered no clear funding commitments for programmes that provide young people with paid work opportunities.
Young people seeking relief cannot be expected to wait for economic growth that has eluded the government for years.
The 2026 Adjusted Estimates of National Expenditure and existing expenditure projections raise further concerns:
- R1.3 billion cut from the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant allocation.
- No new funding for school assistants under the sixth phase of the Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI).
- A looming funding cliff for the National Youth Service, with earlier projections showing allocations falling from R1.37 billion in 2026/27 to R21.6 million in 2027/28.
“Government cannot acknowledge the scale of unemployment while leaving programmes that put young people to work without funding certainty. Public employment has demonstrated its value. What is missing is a commitment to sustain and expand it,” says Buhlebethu Magwaza, Project Lead at Youth Capital.
Ahead of the MTBPS, Youth Capital submitted a memorandum to the National Treasury, backed by more than 7,500 supporters of the PEPs4Youth petition, calling for protected, multi-year funding to provide at least one million paid public employment opportunities annually.
Youth Capital continues to call for:
- Protected, three-year funding for at least one million paid public employment opportunities annually.
- Funding for BEEI Phase VI ahead of the 2027 school year, alongside clarity on the future of the National Youth Service and Social Employment Fund.
- Measurable youth unemployment reduction targets, with clear accountability for delivery.
“Young people cannot continue moving from one short-term programme to another without knowing whether opportunities will exist next year. National Treasury must explain how the government intends to sustain these programmes and fund a response to the unemployment crisis,” adds Magwaza.
Youth Capital will take these demands to Parliament’s post-MTBPS processes, representing the more than 7,500 South Africans who have backed the PEPs4Youth petition.
ENDS
Media enquiries:
Luvo Mnyobe, Youth Capital Communications Lead
luvo@youthcapital.co.za
061 420 8111 (WhatsApp)