ANC national chairperson and mineral and petroleum resources minister Gwede Mantashe has sought to clarify his comments about youth unemployment that have stirred up quite a controversy last week.
Speaking at Nyanyadu Primary School in Dundee, KwaZulu-Natal, on Wednesday, Mantashe insisted he was misquoted as he did not call young people “lazy”.
“I am fighting young people here. They’ve accused me of saying they are lazy and I deny that. That’s not what I said. I didn’t use the term lazy. You can go back to my interview, you will not find ‘lazy’. I am making the point that we will only defeat unemployment if we are activists. If we are sleeping, we will not defeat it. We must be activists,” he said.
Mantashe faced a serious backlash last week, after controversial remarks he made alleging that the youth are unemployed because they are lazy and do not submit CVs to search for employment. He suggested that unemployed South Africans are overly dependent on the government to provide jobs rather than actively seeking employment.
“The ANC has given you a fishing rod. Must it now catch fish for you?” Mantashe asked.
On Wednesday Mantashe said his intention was to encourage citizens to be more proactive in their pursuit of employment.
I’m told I said people are lazy. No, I said get up and look for jobs … It is up to you to make follow-ups and check whether you appear on lists, whether you have been shortlisted and whether you come to interviews prepared. That’s all I am saying
— Gwede Mantashe, ANC national chair
“People from our country must have work. They must come out of their homes and look for the jobs. The jobs won’t be delivered to their doorsteps. I’m told I said people are lazy. No, I said get up and look for jobs. If you have applied, do a follow-up, ask about your reference number as an applicant. It is up to you to make those follow-ups and check whether you appear on lists, whether you have been shortlisted and whether you come to interviews prepared. That’s all I am saying.”
He even revealed that he had engaged with the minister of labour about strategic interventions employed by other countries that could assist to reduce high levels of unemployment.
“I asked the labour minister whether our neighbouring countries have identified particular jobs to be reserved for citizens, and why we can’t do that here. You go to a garage, the petrol attendant assisting you is a foreign national. Something is wrong. You go to a farm, you find a foreign national working there. You go to a restaurant, the person serving you is a foreign national. You go to the mines … basic work requiring basic skills is done by a foreign national. That is not xenophobic; it’s about patrotism. You love your country.”
So contentious were Mantashe’s comments that they invited a threats from ANC Youth League (ANCYL)’s president Collen Malatji to picket at the party’s January 8th celebration alongside unemployed youth with CVs in hand.
Malatji clapped back, saying the youth cannot be told by someone “who has never written or submitted a CV” in their life.
“With the high level of unemployment in South Africa, you find leaders if the ANC saying people are unemployed because they are lazy to apply for jobs. Those are people who are detached from the reality of the people of South Africa,” Malatji said on Thursday last week.
“We don’t want your views, we don’t want your slogans. We want you to speak resolutions in the ANC and not what you think is right. We don’t care what you think. We care about the resolutions of the ANC,” he said.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula had to intervene in the public spat, reading the riot act to Mantashe and instructing him to explain his controversial remarks about youth unemployment or face being sanctioned by the organisation.
Addressing ANC youth league members at a Peter Mokaba memorial lecture in the North West ahead of the party’s January 8 rally, Mbalula said Mantashe should explain what he meant.
“I spoke to the national chair. He says he was misquoted. If he was misquoted, he must clarify himself about that misquotation … What the media is saying the national chair has said about the youth being lazy and that people must go and find jobs for themselves — that matter must be clarified. If it is not clarified, it will remain that the national chair has said [it]. This is not a joking matter; it is serious matter. It must be clarified properly,” he said.
“If he does not clarify himself, I will issue a statement on behalf of the ANC to reprimand him. If those are his views, they cannot be the views of the national chair of the ANC.”