{"id":96078,"date":"2026-02-19T11:02:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T11:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mps-urge-ramaphosa-to-address-youth-unemployment-urgently"},"modified":"2026-02-19T11:11:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T11:11:57","slug":"mps-urge-ramaphosa-to-address-youth-unemployment-urgently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mps-urge-ramaphosa-to-address-youth-unemployment-urgently","title":{"rendered":"MPs Urge Ramaphosa to Address Youth Unemployment Urgently"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Ramaphosa has been slammed by the EFF over remarks by ANC leaders that the youth is not doing enough to find employment.<\/p>\n<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa has faced more calls in Parliament to address youth unemployment and to finally declare it a national emergency.<\/p>\n<p>The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have slammed Ramaphosa over remarks by some African National Congress (ANC) leaders that the youth is not doing enough to find employment.<\/p>\n<p>Members of Parliament&#8217;s two houses debated Ramaphosa\u2019s State of the Nation Address (SONA), which some parties said failed to addressed issues around youth unemployment and lack of economic opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>The second day, Wednesday, of the SONA debate focused a lot on youth unemployment and how it\u2019s becoming a crisis.<\/p>\n<p>The debate came as Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) released its Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), which showed youth unemployment remains significantly higher than the national average of 31.4%.<\/p>\n<p>ANC member of Parliament (MP) Fasiha Hassan said Ramaphosa must act urgently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut President Ramaphosa, I must now speak plainly as a young member of Parliament here. So, here is the demand from us as young people, treat youth unemployment like a national emergency. Not with speeches, but with State power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile EFF MP Sihle Lonzi slammed Ramaphosa and some of his Cabinet ministers for suggesting the youth is not doing enough to get employment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a lie that they sit at home and bask under the sun like Minister Gwede Mantashe suggests. They wake up every morning, they ask their family for the last cent. They must choose between buying bread and buying a bus ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ramaphosa will respond to issues raised during the two-day debate on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. Ramaphosa has been slammed by the EFF over remarks by ANC leaders that the youth is not doing enough to find employment. President Cyril Ramaphosa has faced more calls in Parliament to address youth unemployment and to finally declare it a national emergency. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have slammed Ramaphosa over [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":96077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-96078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MPs Urge Ramaphosa to Address Youth Unemployment Urgently - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ramaphosa has been slammed by the EFF over remarks by ANC leaders that the youth is not doing enough to find employment. ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mps-urge-ramaphosa-to-address-youth-unemployment-urgently\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MPs Urge Ramaphosa to Address Youth Unemployment Urgently\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ramaphosa has been slammed by the EFF over remarks by ANC leaders that the youth is not doing enough to find employment. ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mps-urge-ramaphosa-to-address-youth-unemployment-urgently\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-19T11:02:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-19T11:11:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1771486895.205232.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"822\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mps-urge-ramaphosa-to-address-youth-unemployment-urgently#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mps-urge-ramaphosa-to-address-youth-unemployment-urgently\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"MPs Urge Ramaphosa to Address Youth Unemployment Urgently\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-19T11:02:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-19T11:11:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mps-urge-ramaphosa-to-address-youth-unemployment-urgently\"},\"wordCount\":301,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mps-urge-ramaphosa-to-address-youth-unemployment-urgently#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1771486895.205232.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mps-urge-ramaphosa-to-address-youth-unemployment-urgently#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mps-urge-ramaphosa-to-address-youth-unemployment-urgently\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mps-urge-ramaphosa-to-address-youth-unemployment-urgently\",\"name\":\"MPs Urge Ramaphosa to Address Youth Unemployment Urgently - 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