Steenhuisen calls for job creation at DA Youth Day rally

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader, John Steenhuisen, says government has an obligation to stimulate growth and economic opportunities for young people of this country.

Steenhuisen was speaking during the DA’s national Youth Day Celebration in Mahushu, near Hazyview in Mpumalanga. The DA says it’s ready to govern the country to improve the economy as long as South Africans can allow the party to do so.

The DA Youth Day Celebrations started with a march; this as a symbolic action to pay tribute to the youth of 1976. Young people came in their numbers to celebrate Youth Day.

Some of the leaders, who were part of the event included Communications Minister, Solly Malatsi, Deputy Minister of Small Businesses, Jane Sithole, and the Mpumalanga provincial leadership.

Young people, who attended the DA Youth Day celebration, called on the government to create job opportunities for all.

“There is a lack of job opportunities. A lot of youth are not working. There is also a lack of education as a lot of youth do not have access to bursaries. Poverty is the one affecting us the most because most of us who live in poverty don’t have the money to go to colleges, varsities or TVET. We don’t have access to a lot of things in our community, and the ruling government is not taking us seriously, our councilor included,” says a participant.

Another participant adds: “As young people we need fairness in job opportunities. When there’s funding of anything they should let everyone from the community benefit from that. I think we can still celebrate, but we need fairness from the government.”

The DA’s Mpumalanga Youth League member, Kuswakele Mndawe, says job creation is a big task the government need to focus on.

“We want to ensure that in the province we create more jobs. We must ensure that we install proper policies that are going to develop young people not for them only to carry certificates but for them to have skills that are going to take them forward in order for them to find employment and expression in the work place. We want the youth economy to go back to the young people. We want the kasi economy to go back to young people. We want the youth to find expression in any sector of the economy,” says Mndawe.

DA leader, John Steenhuisen, says the government needs to do more to stimulate the economy.

🇿🇦 MUST WATCH: DA ministers are working to deliver jobs, dignity, and real opportunities for young people.

DA Leader John Steenhuisen unpacks how the party is championing jobs.

Follow the link to watch the full speech: https://t.co/AV6fOe2sAe#YouthDay pic.twitter.com/EkjBHzpyGi

— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) June 16, 2025

Steenhuisen says young people from rural areas such as Mahushu are migrating to cities for better jobs, which are not available.

“We have a huge problem with youth unemployment in the country, in the rural areas and urban areas like this. There are a lot of young people looking for opportunities and if there are none here then they have to move to cities. It is about sharing our vision for the country where everybody who wants to work can work. After 30 years of broken promises they must back a party that is serious about growth and jobs and that has demonstrated that it delivers jobs,” he says.

Steehuisen says an accountable government is needed to take the country forward and that can happen by voting out the ANC because it has failed for the past 30 years.

“We can have an economy that is growing, we can have a local government that works.  The people can vote for the right parties and the right people to get into places where we have shown that given the chance to govern using the right leaders of the economy we can move this economy from a stagnant job shedding economy to an economy that’s creating opportunities and jobs for the youth.

“We have got a lot more to do a lot faster. The first quarter GDP was not good enough. We need the economy growing at three to 6% so we can absorb people into work.”

Steenhuisen has urged DA members to go out and canvas for next year’s local government elections.