Statistician-general Risenga Maluleke was a busy man last week, telling the nation what many have known for some time: that the crisis level of unemployment in SA has actually got worse. Much worse.

The situation is now comparable to 2008, deep in the throes of the 2007/2008 financial crisis. It is another indicator that this is not a “cyclical” crisis from which the country could emerge given better global demand conditions, but a structural and endemic feature of SA life...