Thuli Madonsela rejects promise of a job for every young person
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Daily Maverick
Thuli Madonsela, former South African public protector and former constitutional adviser, says the Constitution does not guarantee young people jobs. She instead advocates an economic framework promoting justice and job creation, at the One Young World 2026 summit in Cape Town, according to Daily Maverick.
South African professor Thuli Madonsela rejects the idea that South Africa’s Constitution guarantees a job for every young person. She believes the constitutional text was instead meant to guarantee a right to justice within a fair economic environment, she told the Daily Maverick.
Madonsela, one of 11 advisers and technical experts involved in drafting the post-apartheid Constitution, explained that the drafters had considered a right to work before opting for a guarantee of justice. In her view, jobs were to be created by all economic actors rather than by the state alone.
At the One Young World summit in Cape Town, she also said that a young person should not be viewed solely as a job seeker, but also as someone who can create jobs and wealth. She attributed repeated promises of guaranteed public jobs to post-apartheid political leaders, saying these had contributed to this perception.
Madonsela also recalled that the apartheid state had sought to prevent certain communities from creating wealth and jobs. She said she had worked on provisions concerning women’s equality in the workplace, which later contributed to the development of the Employment Equity Act and the Promotion of Equality Act.
