South African black urban youth capacity to aspire

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: South Africa as a young democracy has come of age. The born-frees qualified to vote for the first time in the national and provincial elections in2014. They are now considered adult enough to contribute to the direction the country is taking by voting for their own political party, President, and Provincial Premiers. They voted for the first time in the year 2016 at municipal and local government level. Like South Africa, they also turned 25years oldin 2019.South Africa’s population stands among the youngest in the world at an average age of 24.9 years. According to Statistics South Africa, South African citizens under the age of 35 years constitute 77.6% of the total population, with “youth aged 15-24 years the most vulnerable in the South African labour market as the unemployment rate among this age group was 55,2% in the 1stquarter of 2019” (2019).Similarly, according to Unicef’s “Generation 2030 Africa” report, out of South Africa’s projected population of 53 million people, 18 million of those would be under the age of 18by 2015(2014). Globally, “already, nearly half the world’s population is under twenty-five years old. That represents about three billion people” (Elmore, 2010).The numbers and consequent importance of this young generation cannot be ignored, today’s youth are key to the future of the world. Knowing and understanding this generation is therefore critical to understanding society today, and the future it holds. At the core of this study is therefore an attempt to answer the key question –how are young South Africans, particularly young black urban South Africans, imagining themselves into the future? This will be done by looking atone group of South African youth –black urban youth, and one variable of this black urban South African youth –their capacity to aspire...