Redirecting youth potential — from crime and gangs to enterprise and purpose

Every young person wants three things: purpose, belonging and a pathway to success. When legitimate pathways are blocked, illegitimate ones emerge to fill the gap.

South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis is well-documented. In the first quarter of 2026, more than 60% of 15 to 24-year-olds were unemployed. Nearly 3.9 million young people were not in employment, education or training. For millions, exclusion from opportunity has become a defining feature of daily life.

Borrowing a phrase from this year’s State of the Youth Address, the goal should be to move more young people from Neet to Leet: from “not in employment, education or training”, to actively “looking for employment, education or training”.

Young people do not stop aspiring simply because opportunities are scarce. The desire for status, achievement, income and belonging remains. The question is where those needs are met.

For some, gangs and organised crime fill the vacuum. They offer what many young people are searching for: identity, recognition, income and a sense of purpose, however destructive. In too many communities, gangs have become competitors for youth potential.

Organised crime’s reach extends beyond gang recruitment. Across parts of South Africa, extortion is increasingly undermining local economies, targeting small businesses, informal traders and construction projects. For young entrepreneurs trying to build a livelihood, the threat of intimidation and extortion can become yet another barrier to economic participation.

This competition is particularly visible during school holidays. When schools close, many young people lose access to structure, supervision, meals and positive social networks. Gangs do not take holidays. They step into the vacuum, offering money, belonging and protection.

A recent report by the Global Initiative Against Organised Crime indicates that recruitment often intensifies during these periods, with children being targeted at increasingly younger ages. But vulnerability is not limited to school holidays. It often emerges during life’s transitions, when a young person leaves school, completes a programme or ages out of a support structure without a clear next step.

Compounding the challenge

The challenge is compounded by instability at home. Nearly one in five South African children lives with neither biological parent, while many others grow up in households facing significant social and economic pressures. At the same time, a growing number of young men are becoming disconnected from education, training and employment pathways. Given their disproportionate representation in violent crime and gang activity, this trend should concern us all.

The issue is not that young people take risks. Risk-taking, ambition and the search for belonging are normal parts of youth development. The challenge is to create entry points that channel these instincts into achievement, enterprise and leadership rather than crime and violence.

That work begins early. Children who are healthy, well-nourished and supported in their first years of life are more likely to succeed at school and participate meaningfully in the economy later. Through initiatives such as Khulisa Care, support is being provided during the critical first 1,000 days of life, helping to strengthen nutrition, caregiver support and early childhood development outcomes. Keeping children connected to education remains one of the most powerful forms of crime prevention available to us.

Through initiatives such as Planet Youth, which has surveyed more than 49,000 Grade 8 and 9 learners across 123 schools in the Western Cape, the government is building a deeper understanding of the factors that place young people at risk and the protective factors that help them thrive.

Young people need mentors, role models, structured activities and opportunities into the world of work. They need opportunities to contribute, to earn, to build skills and to experience success. Programmes such as Chrysalis Academy, YearBeyond and the Premier’s Advancement of Youth programme demonstrate the value of connecting young people to purpose, responsibility and workplace experience.

The Western Cape’s MOD (Mass participation, Opportunity and Access, Development and Growth) centres play a similarly important role, providing safe after-school spaces where young people can build confidence, develop life skills and find a sense of belonging through sport, arts and recreation.

Building on the positive outcomes of the Mitchells Plain Safe Zone pilot, structured school holiday programmes are also being introduced to provide young people with safe, supervised and enriching activities during school breaks. Together, these programmes help create the support networks that many young people need to thrive.

Economic strategy

We also need to recognise that diversion is an economic strategy. If gangs compete for young people’s ambition, then legitimate sectors of the economy must compete back. The Western Cape’s growing business process outsourcing sector has shown how this can be done, creating 100,000 entry-level opportunities that provide income, skills, workplace experience and a pathway into the formal economy.

We should be expanding apprenticeships and workplace-based learning opportunities, particularly in sectors facing skills shortages. We should scale structured holiday programmes in high-risk communities so that school breaks become periods of learning, earning and development rather than recruitment windows for gangs.

Most importantly, we should create more opportunities for young people to earn while they learn. A Youth Service Corps could combine community service with a stipend, skills development and practical work experience, helping young people build their futures while strengthening their communities. For those with entrepreneurial ambitions, greater access to micro-grants, mentorship and procurement opportunities could help turn ideas into livelihoods.

We must also continue removing the practical barriers that keep young people disconnected from opportunity. Sometimes the difference between unemployment and employment is not a lack of ambition or ability, but something as simple as the cost of getting to an interview. That is why initiatives such as transport vouchers for jobseekers should be expanded, ensuring that opportunity is not determined by the price of a taxi fare.

A problem of exclusion

If we are serious about reducing crime and violence, we must be equally serious about expanding opportunity. Crime is often treated as a policing problem, but it is also a problem of exclusion. When young people cannot find a place in the economy, too many will find a place elsewhere.

That is why Growth for Jobs remains the Western Cape government’s apex priority. Economic growth is not an end in itself. It is how we create more pathways into work, support entrepreneurship, attract investment and expand opportunity for the next generation.

There is dignity in having a real choice to make. Yet for too many young people, meaningful choices are in short supply.

Gangs offer income, identity and belonging. If we want to compete with that, we must offer something better.

More young people earning while they learn. More apprenticeships. More pathways into entrepreneurship. More opportunities to contribute, achieve and belong.

Young people do not need fewer risks. They need better ones. DM