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Unemployed residents say their degrees are gathering dust.
Unemployed Cape Town residents have called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to prioritise job creation and to deal with crime during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday.
This year’s State of the Nation Address will be Ramaphosa’s first speech under the Government of National Unity (GNU).
The President’s SONA outlines government’s plans for the upcoming year.
Residents say the high level of crime makes them feel unsafe and that their degrees are gathering dust at home.
Young and old gathered outside Cape Town’s City Hall on Wednesday to watch SANDF members doing their rehearsals ahead of Thursday’s SONA.
Even those who had just knocked off from their places of employment, filled the streets around the City Hall as different units of the SANDF members on motorbikes and horses did their final rehearsals.
[WATCH] SANDF soldiers doing rehearsals ahead of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State Of the Nation Address. #sabcnews #ThePeoplesSona2025 #SONA2025 pic.twitter.com/4OxULJlxf8
— Tshepiso Moche (@tshepimoche) February 5, 2025
One of the unemployed graduates says, “Mr President please create jobs, we are tired of sitting home and doing nothing. Our parents are not working and we are not working also, we are struggling.”
About 8.4 million people are unemployed in the country.
Crime
Meanwhile, crime levels continue to rise in the country, with recent South African Police Service stats showing an increase in attempted murder, armed robbery, and home robberies.
Armed gangs and extortion gangs remain to be a headache for the police.
A 27-year-old man says he continues to live in fear as armed gangs have taken control of his area. He says many of his peers have decided to join gangs due to the ever-increasing high cost of living and the high unemployment rate.
Residents of gang-ridden communities say the President must use his SONA to address this challenge.
“Our kids are dying every day. Police are not helping us. Ramaphosa, please help us.”
