Over 4800 unemployed young people have been deployed by the Department of Basic Education to various schools across the Northern Cape. The aim of the initiative is to deal with the high unemployment rate in the country.

In the first quarter of 2025, South Africa’s official youth unemployment rate (for those aged 15-34) reached 46.1%, marking a significant increase of 9.2% from the last quarter of 2024.

The project will run for six months at a budget of R123 million.

Qunita Katembo and Clive La Grande are some of the assistant teachers benefiting from the project.

“This programme has changed my life. I have been unemployed for five years, just sitting at home, and I want to further my studies. I don’t want to sit at home anymore; I just want to focus on my dreams because I have wasted five years of my life,” says Katembo.

“I’m quite excited to be a beneficiary of this project because it helps with day-to-day living and being unemployed for so long. You can see there’s an upbeat in the community and for me personally, it helps me because I can take care of my daughter now,” says La Grande.