Document: City of Johannesburg: Young Entrepreneurship Policy and Strategy Framework

Anecdotal arguments all around the developing world suggest that the youth (age 15 to 35) as a designated social group suffer the most inhumane socio-economic injustices. Empirically the recent World Bank Development Report (2007) makes the observation that the general worldwide view is that by age 24, almost all youth in developing countries have left school and entered a new stage of life – some begin wage work, some engage in home enterprises, some form households and raise families, and others engage in a comb inations of these activities. According to an International Labour Organisation (ILO) study in 2006, the number of unemployed young people increased from 74 million in 1995 to 85 million in 2005, representing an increase of 14.8 per cent globally. However the Human Research Council (HSRC – 2006) indicated that for South Africa, Youth are twice as likely to be unemployed with an unemployment rate of 58% for young people aged 15 to 19, and 50 % for those aged 20 to 24.

The biggest contributing factor according to Gideon Horn (2006) is the unemployability of the school leavers with or without matric due to conditioned demand for skilled labour. The viable option henceforth would be a brave convergence to entrepreneurship and self-employment. Sadly, according to the South African Institute for Entrepreneurship (2007); ‘South Africa has the lowest entrepreneurial activity rate of all the developing countries with just 5.1 of adults in South Africa being involved in an entrepreneurial activity.