Recently, the NYDA briefed parliament on the state of youth employment. The findings were pretty grim. Even though large amounts of money were being spent to counter youth unemployment, 36% of people between the ages of 15 and 35 are unemployed. Poverty and inequality remain a problem and one out of three unemployed youth have children to look after. With so many issues to contend with, we took to the streets and asked: “Has the struggle ended for the class of 2015”

Paulina Sogcwayi (24)

I think so because we are not in a racist society anymore. You can go to any school you want, including those that were for white people, we couldn’t do that in the past but now we can, because everything is affordable.

Sanelisiwe Mngesi (24)

No, although now it’s a different kind of struggle. We are coming from a history that is not nice. Maybe the struggle back then was fighting racism, the education system and other things. Now fast forward to 2015, people are still not free, they are not free economically. People are suffering. Unemployment is high, everything is just a mess. I think it’s even worse now than it was back then.

Ayabonga Pasiya (22)

No, I don’t think so because not all of us have had the chance to study. Some of us are in school yes, but the majority still isn’t. If a person has a lack of education, then there is a lack of opportunities in general. So unless we all get an equal chance in terms of education, then there is a chance to try and equalise things, but for now people are struggling so no, its not over.

Lazola Ndubela (23)

I really don’t believe so, if anything it’s only the beginning because most of the things that the youth of ‘76 fought for still haven’t been realised. I think we have reached a point in our democracy where it’s still young but its mature for us to weigh it out. 20 years is quite enough time for us to ask “What have we done?”, “What have we not done?” I think where we would hope to be in 20 years time is not where we are now and I believe the struggle still continues.

Thandeka Lusuwana (24)

No it hasn’t. It seems like it has just started. We have struggles of our own, which is the youth not really being ambitious, them not having dreams and actually pushing them. Not all of us though, because some of us have dreams, we try to push them as there are means out there for us to make our dreams come true. Then there are others who live for the moment, who don’t think about tomorrow, so it seems like the struggle has just started for young people living in 2015. Our struggle is also not knowing what it means to be free. We are abusing freedom, we are all about living now, turn up, dressing nice, living the good life, to have the life that we see in the media and social media, we want that life but that is not the life we should be living for ourselves.

For more info, check this infographic out.

Photography by Shafeeqah Sollons

Live from Parliament casts a youth lens on parliament and government, covering committees, policy-making, MPs, and the sitting of actual Parliament. Our team of youth journalists report Live from Parliament every week in partnership with the People’s Assembly and Making All Voices Count.

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