According to ‘The New Age’ President Jacob Zuma has announced that an alliance summit will be convened later this month to amongst others tackle youth unemployment. Zuma was speaking at the national Youth Day celebration in Pretoria. According a recent study by Statistics SA the unemployment rate among youth aged 15 to 34 increased from 32.7% to 36.1% between 2008 and 2014.

Zuma claimed, “The economy is not growing as fast as we want it to and is not creating as many jobs as we need. As a result many of our graduates sit at home without jobs. That is one of the issues we are going to talk about on the one week alliance summit. What do we do with young people who are unemployed and we will get out there with an agreement because we must get out there with a remedy“.

The President was, however, quick to point that government alone cannot win the battle against unemployment. “We reiterate our call to the private sector to open their businesses to the youth for internships and apprentices in line with the youth employment accord signed a few years ago. We have to work together to provide opportunities for the youth, who are the future of our country. Government cannot perform this task alone. We are also encouraging young people to become entrepreneurs”.