President Cyril Ramaphosa says a rogue criminal justice system can be detrimental to South Africa’s economic growth and job creation. He says the value of commissions, such as the previous Zondo Commission and the Madlanga Commission currently under way, probing allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the criminal justice system, will soon be realised by many South Africans.

Ramaphosa was speaking at the On the Record Jobs Summit in Cape Town. He says a lot of government decisions are being criticised without paying much attention.

Ramaphosa pointed fingers to the apartheid regime for the current jobs crisis in the country.

The summit, which is convened under the theme “Five Million Jobs in 10 Years” is an initiative from the private sector spearheaded by one of the country’s media companies.

Ramaphosa says the high unemployment rate in South Africa is one of the results of the legacy of apartheid, which excluded black people from economic activities.

“And we must therefore do everything we can to reverse that legacy and to create jobs because we can no longer continue using it as an excuse. Many young people face the prospect of leaving school without a foot hold in the economy, unable to lift themselves and more particularly their own family out of poverty. And many young people have to pay even before they start work. They have to pay the black tax.”

Ramaphosa says it is crucial to create skills-based employment opportunities in order to reach the target of creating five million new jobs in 10 years.

“We must invest in skills and education because there’s a mismatch of skills. Our past which I spoke to very briefly determined that black people who were in the majority, who have been excluded in the economic activity were just given poor education. And so therefore we have to focus on developing skills, but we also want those skilled people to be underpinned by innovation.”

VIDEO | President Cyril Ramaphosa says job creation remains a priority:

The president says ensuring the functioning of the various commissions of inquiry, will allow for all questions in the mind of the public to be answered and will be followed by necessary consequences for those found to be responsible of wrongdoing.

“What the Madlanga Commission is doing is giving us a great opportunity to overhaul our police system, our criminal justice system to clean it out, to get all the thugs and rogues out of the system because in the end, passive crime which has been happening breeds fear and mistrust and both a devastating human cost and a direct economic impact as well a negative one it increases the cost of doing business and discourages businesses from investing and a number of business people have said we would want to invest but your crime rate is just too high.”

Meanwhile, Ramaphosa has called for Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) to be disbanded and be replaced by more effective skills-based interventions. Stats SA reported that South Africa’s official unemployment rate was 31.4% during the last quarter of 2025. The summit, which is being held for two days, comprises of labour and economics experts, as well as working groups focusing on economic growth, youth unemployment, crime and corruption.

VIDEO | The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry proceedings on 19 March 2026: