Duduzane Zuma, First Deputy President of the uMkhonto weSizwe Party, has put youth unemployment before voters as a question of where responsibility lies, telling supporters at a provincial election rally that government alone cannot deliver the jobs South Africa needs. The private sector, he argued, through business, entrepreneurship and investment, must carry part of the mandate.
The rally was held at K Hall in uMlazi, KwaZulu-Natal, ahead of the local government elections scheduled for 4 November. Zuma’s argument turned on the limits of state capacity. Government, he said, can only employ so many people. Employment, in his framing, is a function of investment, and with investment comes opportunity.
The statement sets out a division of labour that Zuma described explicitly. Not everyone can be absorbed into government departments or municipalities, he told the rally. Among the population there must also be people who create opportunities: business people, entrepreneurs and those outside government willing to step forward and make a difference.
The party has attached a figure to its pledge. The MKP says it is committed to creating 400,000 jobs for young people over five years. Zuma said the party is yet to put its plan into action, tying delivery to the electoral outcome. The vision outlined by the president of the organisation, he said, is backed by a solid plan, and that plan involves young people. But delivery depends first on winning office. For the party to deliver on that plan, he argued, it must first deliver power to the people, which is why the vote matters. Elections come only once in a while, he said, and the only power Black people and young people in this country hold is their vote.
Zuma urged supporters to use their vote on 4 November to push for change and greater economic opportunities for young people. He acknowledged a degree of public fatigue with political messaging, saying he was sure voters were sick and tired, as he put it, of hearing the same old stories and the same promises.
Much of his address turned on the question of who holds power and who exercises it. Drawing on his own exposure to business, politics and social issues, and to travel and residence in different places, he told comrades that young people are running the world. In politics, business, technology and governance, he said, change and leadership are emerging wherever young people are taking control. Across the African continent, including South Africa, he described a hunger and a need for younger leaders to emerge. The continent has the youngest population in the world and some of the greatest opportunities, he said, yet it is Africans who are not taking advantage of them.
He also directed the youth to look beyond election day itself. As much as the 4th of November is approaching and everyone is keeping an eye on the elections, he said, young people must also focus on the opportunities that politics can bring.
The remarks position the MKP’s youth employment message as both a policy commitment and an accountability claim, one in which the party asks voters to treat the ballot as the mechanism through which its job creation plan can be tested. Whether the 400,000 jobs pledge translates into delivery would, on the party’s own framing, depend on the outcome at the polls and on the plan being put into action once in office. Coverage of the rally forms part of the SABC’s Elections 360 programming on the SABC News Channel, SABC+ and YouTube, with the broadcaster also carrying video coverage of the party’s focus on youth unemployment in the run-up to the 2026 local government elections.