Unpacking South Africa’s Structural Unemployment: A Critical Analysis

South Africa continues to face the twin devils of inequality and unemployment more than two decades after independence, this article focus on the latter. Current trends indicate that there is no end in sight with figures continuing to worsen by the quarter. Whilst the broad sentiment of this article generally concurs with several existing literatures that unemployment in South Africa is largely structural, the value brought by this article is in unpacking the nature of the structural unemployment. The paper posits that structural unemployment has been dynamic in its form. While it might have emanated from inherited institutional disparities from the apartheid regime, several other factors such as poor governance and institutional factors, rise of automation (4IR), regional pressure and international factors such as integration into the BRICS community, mismatches between labour and industry needs and more recently coronavirus have since emerged. These require a new and dynamic approach from traditional economic models if growth and sustainability is to be attained. The key will lie in the ability of both policy makers and citizens to learn, unlearn and relearn.