Former Statistician General Pali Lehohla has taken aim at President Cyril Ramaphosa over claims that more than two million job opportunities have been created for young people, describing the statement as misleading and detached from official data.
Speaking during a televised interview with Newzroom Afrika following last Thursday’s State of the Nation Address in Cape Town, Lehohla questioned the source of the figures cited by the President, particularly at a time when South Africa’s latest unemployment statistics show that about 16.9 million people remain without work.
The former head of Statistics South Africa said a review of time series data dating back to 2008 paints a different picture from the one presented during the address.
“Well, I suppose the lens of our eyes can’t read adequately. So, I have to rely more on the lens of the statistician general who has time series data,” Lehohla said.
He explained that from around 2017 and 2018, unemployment in absolute terms began overtaking levels recorded a decade earlier. In 2008, about 4.5 million people aged between 25 and 34 were employed, while 1.5 million aged 15 to 24 had jobs. Combined, that amounted to six million young people in employment.
“By 2025 that number has dropped,” he said. “The 1.5 million has dropped to 1 million and the 4.5 million has dropped to 4 million and this happens in a growing population.”
According to Lehohla, young people have been losing jobs steadily since 2018, with many remaining unemployed for extended periods. He warned that long spells without work create a cycle that is difficult to break.
“It really is very misleading to say that we have 2 million job opportunities for the young people. The time series data shows that these young people are not getting jobs. In fact, they started losing jobs from about 2018 and that is continuing up to now. So I don’t know where the president gets his numbers from.”
He cautioned against relying on project based statistics instead of official national data. “You cannot have pet projects providing national numbers. That’s really undermining the system.”
Across South Africa, scenes of young people queuing for employment have become common. Lehohla referred to reports of long lines at recruitment drives, including events hosted by the South African National Defence Force, where matriculants who completed school years ago still search for work.
He said unemployment among youth now stretches to three years or more for many, with some discouraged work seekers remaining outside employment, education or training for up to five years. “By the time you have gone over five years nobody will ever employ you,” he said, warning that this condemns many to a lifetime of dependency.
Lehohla also drew on the writings of Moshoeshoe, born in 1713 in what is today the Free State, to define responsible leadership.
“A responsible leader knows himself, knows the people he leads, mobilizes stakeholders for productive relations. They use new instruments of power to ensure and guarantee intergenerational value through integrated reporting,” he said.
He argued that integrated reporting is lacking, noting that if it were present, the President would rely solely on the Statistician General’s time series data. Such analysis, he said, would break down unemployment figures by race and education outcomes, exposing structural challenges affecting black and coloured communities.
Lehohla pointed to low progression rates from matric into university, saying increases in pass rates mean little if only a small fraction advance to higher education. “If South Africa would get out of trouble and crisis when it grows at 6%. Half a percent is not anything to look at because it is so below the threshold that every cycle is a deteriorating cycle.”
He added that harvest rates from matric for black learners remain far below the 50 percent threshold needed for positive spin offs. “Below 50% you are going to get a negative spin off all the way.”
The former statistician also questioned the absence of a central economic authority. “The country doesn’t have a chief economist like it has a statistician general. If the statistician general cooks the books, we know whose throat we should slit. But when the economy misbehaves, you don’t know where to go.”
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