As Youth Month 2025 draws to a close, the question echoing across South Africa is no longer just how we honour the past sacrifices of our youth, but what we are doing to build a future that includes them meaningfully. At the heart of this year’s commemorations lies a pressing truth: South Africa’s young people remain disproportionately affected by unemployment, inequality, and exclusion. While government programmes like the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) offer crucial short-term relief, they must evolve into strategic onramps for sustainable futures, not just temporary lifelines.
This urgency was underscored during a joint Monitoring and Evaluation oversight visit by the Department of Social Development (DSD), Department of Employment and Labour, and the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) to Afrika Tikkun’s Orange Farm Centre. The visit, the first of Q1 2025-26, aimed to assess the implementation of the EPWP at the centre and explore ways to strengthen the programme’s impact on youth development outcomes.
Orange Farm, one of Gauteng’s largest and most underserved communities, stands as a powerful backdrop to this discussion. Here, Afrika Tikkun, in collaboration with government departments, is running an EPWP initiative that equips local youth with practical workplace exposure, soft skills training and the social support needed to transition toward economic independence. This forms part of Afrika Tikkun’s award-winning Cradle-to-Career 360° model, which aims to develop young people holistically, from early childhood to adulthood, bridging the gap between potential and opportunity.
“While the EPWP provides an important stopgap, the real challenge lies in what comes next,” says Tiyani Mohlaba, Chief Operating Officer of Afrika Tikkun. “We cannot afford for our youth to graduate from one temporary programme into another. What we need are deliberate exit strategies that propel them into meaningful employment, entrepreneurship and leadership.”
The theme of this year’s Youth Month, “Skills for the Changing World – Empowering Youth for Meaningful Economic Participation”, reminds us that our approach must reflect the realities of a rapidly shifting economy. Preparing young people for the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) requires more than just digital literacy; it demands investment in adaptability, emotional intelligence, innovation, and access to growing sectors such as ICT, business development and the creative economy.
Afrika Tikkun’s model demonstrates that public-private partnerships, when driven by shared intent and measurable impact, can shift the trajectory of young lives. Through collaborations with the state, private sector, and community stakeholders, young people are accessing opportunities to internships, enterprise development, and sector-specific training that link directly to real job markets.
“Partnerships work,” Mohlaba adds. “But they must be intentional, coordinated and long-term. We need to move from pockets of excellence to scalable, systemic transformation. From short-term interventions to sustainable futures.”
As we reflect on the legacy of the youth of 1976, who took to the streets armed with courage and conviction, we are reminded that remembrance alone is not enough. Action is required. Structural, coordinated, youth-led action.
Let this be a call to all stakeholders, government, corporates, civil society and communities, to reimagine what real youth empowerment looks like. Let us be bold enough to ask: Are our youth interventions building lasting futures or merely extending time? Are we creating stepping stones or cul-de-sacs?
As we move beyond June, let us not lose the momentum. Let us honour Youth Month by deepening our investment in the people who hold the future in their hands.
To learn more about how you can help invest in the youth of South Africa, go to: AfrikaTikkun.