During youth day celebrations in Polokwane, Limpopo, this past weekend, Ramaphosa raised his concerns regarding the country’s 55,2% youth unemployment rate and promised those present that he would soon take action. In tonight’s Sona, Ramaphosa’s emphathisers and critics will want to hear how he plans on doing exactly that.

Central South Africa is not being spared from the unemployment trend. The 2019 quarter one unemployment rates in the Free State, Northern Cape, and North West stand at 34,9%, 26%, and 26,4% percentages respectively.

Many believe the key to battling the unemployment rate is entrepreneurship, including newly appointed MEC of Finance in the Free State, Gadija Brown, who said recently youth entrepreneurship is the province’s most important weapon in the ongoing war against a high unemployment rate and a stagnant economy. Brown also cautioned that the government isn’t the only answer to turning the province’s economy around or decreasing the unemployment rate. “The government is top heavy when it comes to the compensation of employees and if the government takes on more people, services will suffer,” the MEC warns.

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