A third of South Africans can't find work, and the region is meeting in Gauteng to fix the job hunt
Employment and Labour's Jacky Molisane told a SADC meeting that transport money, data and printing costs stand between jobseekers and the jobs that exist, as official unemployment sits at 33.6%.
South Africa has called on Southern African Development Community member states to strengthen public employment services, with the Department of Employment and Labour arguing that the test of a jobs programme is what happens to the person after the programme ends.
The call was made by the department’s Acting Director-General, Jacky Molisane, as South Africa hosts the SADC Employment and Labour Sector Joint Tripartite Technical Committee Meeting in Gauteng from 26 to 30 October 2026. The meeting brings together representatives from SADC member states, governments, employers’ and workers’ organisations, and the International Labour Organisation to discuss employment challenges and strengthen regional cooperation.
Molisane asked delegates to focus on practical solutions that would improve the delivery of public employment services and make it easier for jobseekers to reach available opportunities. She named the costs that sit between a person and a job: transport to interviews, internet data to submit applications, and money to print documents.
“When we discuss employment services this week, I ask that we keep that person in mind. The decisions we make here should make the next encounter with an employment office more useful and the job search less difficult,” she said.
The numbers behind the meeting are stark. South Africa’s official unemployment rate stood at 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026, and unemployment among young people aged 15 to 34 in the labour force stood at 47.4%. Molisane said those figures highlight the importance of assessing whether government employment programmes are making a tangible difference in people’s lives.
“We all know how to describe a programme. We can explain its objectives, structure and the number of people it has reached. The more demanding conversation begins when someone asks what happened afterwards,” she said.
She challenged delegates to examine whether referrals translate into jobs, whether training equips people for the vacancies that actually exist, and whether employers continue to use public employment services to recruit suitable candidates. Success, she said, should be measured not only by the number of people assisted but by the quality of jobs secured and the support given to jobseekers.
“An online application should reduce the burden on jobseekers. People who need assistance must be able to reach someone who can provide it,” Molisane said.
She said employment services should complement broader efforts to stimulate economic growth and create more jobs, and stressed that young people need access to relevant training and practical work experience to improve their prospects. Delegates were asked to use the meeting to share lessons, address common challenges and agree on practical measures for their own countries.
“Trust also depends on what happens after we leave. If we agree to act, we should be clear about who will do the work and when progress will be reviewed,” she said.
The meeting runs until Friday. This report is based on the SAnews (South African Government News Agency) account of the meeting, available at https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/sadc-countries-urged-strengthen-employment-services, rather than on the full proceedings.
