Photo suppliedOver the past three years, the Government-Business Partnership has demonstrated the value of government and organised business aligning behind a shared national agenda. Through Business Unity South Africa, business leaders have worked alongside government to support reforms in energy, transport and logistics, and crime and corruption, helping to restore confidence and create a stronger platform for investment and growth in the country.
The launch of Phase 3 on 20 August marks an important shift. Having helped stabilise key foundations for growth, the partnership is now focused on translating that momentum into increased investment and job creation, particularly for young people. The shared ambition is clear: help move South Africa onto a path of sustained growth above 3% per year, contribute to the creation of 1.8 million additional jobs by 2030 and expand earning opportunities for young people at unprecedented scale.
The next frontier is unlocking earning at scale
South Africa's greatest opportunity lies in the potential of its young people.
Across the country, there are already encouraging signs of progress. Employers are opening new entry points into the labour market. Growth sectors are identifying practical ways to absorb more young talent. Work-based learning models are creating stronger links between skills development and available earning opportunities, while public employment programmes are placing greater emphasis on transitions into future work.
New approaches to enterprise and self-employment are also expanding the ways in which young people can participate in the economy. The strongest results continue to come from coordinated action that brings together the capabilities of government, business, and delivery partners around a common objective.
Gundo Ramovha’s story shows what this looks like in practice. He grew up in Limpopo and moved to KwaZulu-Natal with the ambition of building a farming business. Through the Roots Agripreneurship Programme, an opportunity he accessed via SA Youth, South Africa’s largest online youth recruitment platform, he gained access to training, networks and practical support that helped turn that ambition into a viable enterprise. Today, he runs a growing agricultural business producing crops and herbal-infused oils, contributing to local livelihoods and food security. His story shows what becomes possible when skills development, enterprise support, market access and mentorship are intentionally connected around a young person's journey.
There is no single solution to youth unemployment. Transformative change can be achieved through connecting these different routes into earning so that young people can access the right opportunity at the right point in their journey, without having to navigate multiple systems on their own. This means illuminating the path that will help young people move into earning faster and more sustainably. As these efforts take shape, a clearer picture is emerging of which approaches are working, where they can scale and where the greatest potential for acceleration lies.
The power of public-private partnerships
The Presidential Youth Employment Intervention (PYEI) has already demonstrated what coordinated action can achieve, at scale. Public employment programmes strengthened through the Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES) and the PYEI have created more than 2 million opportunities for young people, including through the Basic Education Employment Initiative, National Youth Service, and Social Employment Fund.
Building on the progress of the PYEI and Government-Business Partnership in energy, logistics and transport, South Africa now has the opportunity to organise collective action around six mutually reinforcing levers that have the potential to connect 1.8 million young people to earning by 2030: expanding inclusive hiring in sectors that already employ young people at scale; unlocking new opportunities in high-growth sectors; enabling sustainable self-employment and entrepreneurship; strengthening public employment programmes and improving youth pathways so that young people can access opportunities more easily and transition between them more successfully.
A critical piece of this infrastructure is SA Youth, the national pathway management platform of the PYEI. Operated and managed by Harambee, the platform connects more than 4.7 million young people to earning, learning and self-employment opportunities while helping employers access talent at scale. To date, more than 1.7 million young people have been connected to earning opportunities.
Tourism is also converting sector growth into accessible routes to work. International arrivals increased by 17.6% in 2025, and sector research estimates that every 13 additional international arrivals support approximately one job. The Department of Tourism's Tourism Monitors Programme, delivered with Harambee through SA Youth, placed 2,000 young people at more than 100 sites between 2023 and 2024. Of those participants, 77% were young women and 75% came from under-resourced communities. A further focus is on creating workplace opportunities for 820 TVET students, enabling more young people gain the practical experience needed to transition successfully from learning to earning.
The same pattern is emerging in other sectors. Retail accounted for 40% of the 200,000 formal sector placements facilitated through the SA Youth network between January and March 2026, demonstrating the continued critical role of large employers in creating entry-level routes into earning.
Self-employment is also emerging as an increasingly important pathway to earning. Through the Self-Employment Blueprint process, partners across business, philanthropy, government and civil society are working to strengthen the ecosystem that supports young entrepreneurs. The focus is shifting beyond individual programmes towards a more connected system that helps young people access the coaching, networks, finance, markets and support required to build sustainable livelihoods and enterprises.
The opportunity now is to move faster, together
South Africa has already begun to shift the dial. Across government, business and civil society, leaders are opening new pathways to earning and demonstrating what is possible when action is coordinated around a shared purpose. The opportunity before us is to build on that progress, and bring greater scale and momentum to this work.
The SA Youth National Leadership Convening on 22 October is an opportunity to turn growing momentum into a national movement. It is a pivotal moment to make visible the progress already underway, strengthen confidence in what is working, and galvanise leadership around the next phase of implementation.
Unlocking earning opportunities for millions of young South Africans will not be achieved by any one institution alone. It will require more organisations, more sectors and more leaders to see themselves as active contributors to a shared national ambition. The prize is a more dynamic economy, more competitive businesses, thriving communities, and a generation of young people empowered to contribute their talent, energy and ambition to building South Africa's future. The foundations have been laid. It is now time for us to act with collective purpose, commitment and urgency. DM
Authors: Mxolisi Mgojo, President, Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), and Kasthuri Soni, CEO, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator