Vanessa Mpatlanyane | July 22, 2025
If you have a crime-free, reconciliated, democratic SA, you must have employed and employed citizens.
That was the sentiment expressed in a 1998 statement by former President Nelson Mandela regarding the Job Summit. As we approach what was Madiba's 107th birthday, we are forced to look back at our democracy, as he imagined it.
In his 1998 national speech, Mandela turned his attention to what was already a national crisis of unemployment. It is not the democracy he imagined that this remains a crisis.
Few people object to that Mandela's words were as true as they were back then. When I asked job hunting alumni in 2025, what is left behind is the need for jobs that provide flesh and dignified pay, especially at the entry level.
For thousands of graduates, having a democracy without doing any work feels like a contradiction. However, a typical entry-level job (internship) requires transport, time and day availability from glorious pocket money, although a small step up from unemployment.
Meanwhile, behind these offers is the deafening silence of student debt, family liability, and the real costs of being a young adult in today's SA.
For many graduates and people starting with careers, securing a job is imagined as the beginning of regaining a sense of values and hope. Because it means that you often don't hear from the company for months, sometimes years.
When a positive response is received, it is no wonder that all hopes will rekindle and progress will be within reach. At least that's the emotions and reality that all graduates want, but as things stand, it's far from general experience.
The barrier to entry remains high. Employers need something from third-class to fully owned by fresh graduates, including a driver's license, some demonstrable experience, and a sophisticated skill set.
It turns out that entry-level work is being promoted as an exercise to recognize that socioeconomic inequality exists in some form of markets that exist in parallel universes that do not involve language, body, education achievement, or wit. There are endless reasons to doubt, to be disappointed and to be disillusioned. But not everything is lost.
I recently came across a job offer aimed at graduates. Public agencies in the Skills and Training Development Department of SA have advertised for their positions in Management Data Capture. The ads were intentional and dignified. I didn't call my position an internship. There is no mention of scholarships or allowances. I used the word “reward.” This is a small but powerful green flag in a country where graduates are required to work for the “experience.”
What caught my attention was that the job was not only there, but also the pay it provided. Just above R23,000 per month, this role offers similarities in dignity, which gives it an unexpected sense of relief. Too many similar roles require the same qualifications and commitments, much less.
On the other hand, this job does not seem deaf. It shows consciousness. For many alumni, especially the first generation of black graduates, they recognize that employment is not just about starting a career, but also about easing families, encouraging siblings and becoming a source of much-anticipated stability.
Certainly, R23,000 is not close enough to keep the whole family in today's economy. But compared to the R4,000 internship trap where so many people found themselves, it's a lifeline. That's the difference between barely rubbing and finally moving forward. It is the first real sign of patient value.
This type of compensation brings the hopes of young people up to date with application fatigue, rejection and repeated disappointment trauma. For many, job hunting is not just a loss of morale, it is expensive, isolated and causing. Offers like these create new emotional patterns. The work may symbolize and enable dignity.
There is much to be said about the failure of Madiba's democratic dreams. Certainly, even after 30 years, there is a lot of crying, complaining and criticising. So many disappointments, very distrustful and very hopeless about the public organization. But there are opportunities to get any better, and redirect the train.
That's why when we get a glimpse of it, even the smallest ones, we need to name them, affirm them, and promote them. Young graduates are often treated as political pawns featured in speeches, hashtags and manifestos, but are forgotten in budgets and employment practices. So when public institutions and private companies behave differently, when they lead instead of following, they deserve to be recognized and we can hope that it is contagious.
“Disclaimer – the views and opinions expressed in this article are the views of the author and are not necessarily those of the Bee Room.”
