ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe has sparked outrage with remarks suggesting that unemployed citizens are overly dependent on the government to provide jobs rather than actively seeking employment.

During an interview with the SABC regarding the party’s governance record, Mantashe said he was satisfied with the ANC’s delivery but criticised citizens for failing to be proactive. He urged the unemployed to stop “basking in the sun” and start applying for the opportunities he claims the ANC government has created.

“The ANC has given you a fishing rod — must it now catch fish for you?” he asked.

“I am now over 70. I’ve never had a government look for a job for me. Today, because there is a progressive government, people expect that government to [must] give them jobs. They don’t look for jobs themselves, and that must change.”

Mantashe emphasised a need for a cultural shift: “You queue for a job, you look for the advert, and you apply in real terms. We must move away from being a ‘parcel society’ and become an active society.”

These remarks triggered an immediate backlash on social media, with many labelling his comments insensitive, given South Africa’s staggering unemployment rate.

Former public protector and current MK Party Mpumalanga convenor Busisiwe Mkhwebane described the statements as “irresponsible.”

“Mantashe, if you knew how many applications unemployed graduates and those without qualifications submit, you would never utter such an irresponsible statement,” she said. “Your family and those close to you are not exposed to the poverty and unemployment our families endure. You are so distant from reality, and it is sad.”

MK Party MP Mzwanele Manyi argued that Mantashe was not speaking as a misunderstood elder but as a “career politician defending an indefensible record.”

He attributed the high unemployment rate directly to the ANC’s three decades in power.

“This is not blunt honesty; it is political contempt dressed up as advice. Unemployment in South Africa is not an accident… it is the direct outcome of policy choices that hollowed out industry and protected monopoly capital while the productive base collapsed. To now blame the unemployed is an act of cowardice.”

Manyi further suggested that Mantashe’s remarks reveal a governing elite that has run out of ideas.

“It is easier to accuse people of laziness than to explain why an economy rich in minerals and labour cannot generate work. It is easier to lecture than to account for load-shedding, logistics collapse, and de-industrialisation.”

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba joined the chorus of criticism, blaming the ANC for the crisis through failed economic policies, corruption, the looting of state resources, and cadre deployment.

“Mantashe is unrelenting in his personal mission to insult poor and unemployed South Africans,” Mashaba said. “I wonder whether this is official ANC policy. The ANC government is, to a large part, responsible for the state of unemployment in South Africa.”

Here are more reactions from social media:

Gwede Mantashe says you’re unemployed because you’re not looking for jobs. You’re sitting on your laurels waiting for the government to bring jobs to you. Meaning jobs are there, you’re just not applying🤔. I don’t think I’ve heard anything more nonsensical in 2026.

— Siza Zungu (@Zah_Zungu) January 4, 2026

Haybo lo Tata… we are not lazy, we are tired 😭 juggling jobs, side hustles, load-shedding, taxis, fuel prices and still making it to work. That’s not relaxing, that’s survival mode

— In A Nutshell🥜 (@Markosonke1) January 4, 2026

Telling people to look for work while his government has collapsed the economy shows how tone deaf these people are.
Jobs come from competent leadership and functioning infrastructure. This government has delivered neither.

— JayL (@NoSpinZA) January 4, 2026

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