Mahikeng, North West – ANC Youth League president Collen Malatji has declared that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s successor must not be a “pensioner,” advocating for a generational shift in South Africa’s political leadership.
Speaking at the league’s President Jazz Hour event in Mahikeng, Malatji criticized the exclusion of young people from key government positions, insisting that the youth must take up strategic roles in parliament, provincial legislatures, and executive offices.
“President Ramaphosa must be the last president who’s a pensioner. The next president must not be a pensioner,” Malatji said. “We are done with pensioners who are now instilling the youth with new energy. The ones who are not yet classified as patients must be the ones who are MECs, mayors, councillors, directors, CEOs. Everything important in this country must be run by the youth.”
Malatji also linked youth disenfranchisement to broader economic challenges, arguing that the current economic structure sidelines young people, pushing many into unemployment, substance abuse, and poverty.
“The revolution has not ended until the structure of the economy has changed,” he said. “The majority—which are youth, black, and women—are not active in their own economic structure. They are disempowered, on drugs, on alcohol, abused by their husbands every day.”
Calls for Job Creation and Youth Empowerment
ANC veterans at the event urged the youth to organize a job summit to tackle South Africa’s staggering unemployment rate. Suggestions included greater involvement from development finance institutions to fund youth-led businesses and provide skills training.
“Finance institutions must come to the party and see how they can put finances forward for young people to start businesses,” one veteran said. “We need to impart skills in business planning so young people can create jobs for themselves.”
However, some attendees expressed frustration, arguing that despite the ANC’s electoral dominance, youth unemployment remains rampant.
“The ANC won the elections in this province, yet we’re unemployed,” one attendee said. “There’s nothing to celebrate here. The ground force of the ANC is unemployed—so what are we celebrating?”
Nationwide Rollout Planned
The ANC Youth League announced that its President Jazz Hour program will expand across the country in the coming months, aiming to mobilize young people and push for greater representation in governance and the economy.
As calls for generational change grow louder, Malatji’s remarks signal rising impatience among South Africa’s youth, who demand not just political inclusion but tangible economic transformation.