If people can't find jobs, why should the President keep his?

I visited the Thaba Nchu taxi rank in the Free State today to meet with the unemployed youths who gather there to look for work. The story I heard from them was the same as in the rest of the country. 

Young people go out to look for work, but cannot find any. They are frustrated and they are angry. They are looking for solutions.

Those with matric or university degrees struggle for months and months, and some struggle for years, to find work. Others never find work and some are eventually driven to criminality. 

The bottom line is that South Africa is facing a youth unemployment crisis. So we must ask ourselves: If people cannot find jobs, why should the President keep his?

Last year, the president promised that 2011 would be "the year of the job". And yet the number of unemployed people has increased by another 162 000 since then. 

President Zuma failed to make 2011 "the year of the job". So it is only right that 2012 is the year the President loses his job.

The facts are clear: the President is too afraid to implement the youth wage subsidy that will create hundreds of thousands of jobs. President Zuma's priority is keeping his alliance partners happy; it certainly isn't the unemployed youths gathered at the Thaba Nchu taxi rank.

A president that does not address his country's most pressing concerns does not deserve to stay in office. If people cannot find jobs, President Zuma certainly does not deserve to keep his.

Statement issued by Mmusi Maimane, DA National Spokesperson, June 4 2012

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