The unemployment rate in South Africa has been consistently above 30% for the last 5 years so adding an extra 1.2% for the first quarter of 2026 is hardly a shocker. It is the way this is reported that is hard to actually work out as they have a system that does not tell the entire truth so the 32.7% is a manipulated percentage that hides the real facts.
There are so many official/unofficial stats the important part is not the exact number, but knowing these are increasing in a negative way. The recent tax report stated that only 10% of people working are paying taxes and the more people out of work creates more pressure to raise taxes on those working. How about using those taxes to create employment before there is no money left to create enough taxes to make this a possible solution? If no tax revenue is filtering back into the economy then the economy has no boost to get things working how they should.
In my thought process if you do not have a job and are also of working age then you are unemployed, but the stats do not work that way. That would be too easy and would also show how bad the figures really are which is not good for the government.
As you can see from the above the official labor force is 24.9 million which somehow does not include the other 17.3 million who are still of working age and unemployed. The official/unofficial total as no one knows the real figures of how many people reside in South Africa is a working population of 42.2 million with 16.8 million employed leaving 24.4 million unemployed. A simple calculation tells you that the unemployed rate is virtually smack bang on 60% which is nearly double the official unemployment rate.
Imagine governing a country where 60% of the population has no work and no future prospects of finding work and justifying any form of corruption at the top. The money being stolen should be used on creating jobs and getting the economy moving through upgrading infrastructure and the likes. The BEE excuse of raising more capital by charging businesses 2% of net profit is a sham and is only making those at the top of the food chain richer and those at the bottom poorer. This is why keeping the mases uneducated works because they do not understand the game being played which is a game of screwing the masses for self enrichment.
How refreshing it would be if corruption seized to exist and the population was put first like it should be. The economy would boom and everyone would be positively affected which is only a dream scenario as the government cannot see this as the only ones sacrificing would be them by not stealing.
Finally the world has woken up to the fact that funding NGO's in African countries does not work as that money will be diluted by those in power and you have to be woke not to realise this. Without that free NGO money the problem is now they are having to get creative in other ways to steal.
The stats are most likely far worse than the unofficial stats due to the way the stats are compiled. The government uses an external agency who uses a small settlement outside of Pretoria for their figures. They know if they ventured further a field like to the Eastern Cape these figures would show a very different reality and most likely would be the end of the ANC controlled government.
Over 300K jobs lost in the community and social services sector is rather telling as the vast majority of households are deep in debt and with the increase in minimum wages back in March would have seen many jobs lost. The biggest red flag for myself is seeing 28K jobs lost in private households which would be gardeners and housekeepers known as domestic workers.
These are generally unskilled workers on the lowest salaries and the bottom of the food chain. When households start cutting back to this extent that is a sign that things are rough in the economy and there will be more unemployment on the rise. Stats say there is roughly 1million employed in this sector and they will always be the first ones to be let go when the economy is struggling. The next quarter will be telling if this figure continues to rise which it should do as the economy is not improving plus extra fuel costs and inflation making more households cut back on expenses.