JUSTICE MALALA: We are becoming Zimbabweans
We have a crisis. Millions of unemployed young people on the streets is a recipe for explosion
You won’t like hearing this, but we are becoming Zimbabweans. Like our brothers across the Limpopo, we tolerate and reward political mediocrity. Like our sisters across the river, we like to talk a big game between elections. Yet, come election time, we show neither courage nor imagination. Like our northern neighbours, who give second chances to dodgy characters like President Emmerson Mnangagwa (Robert Mugabe’s henchman for 37 years), we give political platforms to the likes of Ace Magashule (Jacob Zuma’s alleged bagman for nine years and a handy assistant to the disgraced former president today). Look at employment or, rather, the lack of it. Last Tuesday Stats SA announced that SA’s unemployment rate increased to 27.6% in the first quarter of 2019. It said the figure stood at 34.2% for the 25-34 age group and 55.2% for the 15-24 group. That’s a crisis. Half our young people are on the streets. They are idle. I expected South Africans to issue angry media statements, announce pla...
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