Mzansi Now: ANC Calls For Removal of Experience Requirements for Entry-Level Positions

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On January 8, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula called for entry-level jobs to remove their experience requirements in an address at Moruleng Stadium in Rustenburg, North West.  He recognized the catch-22 wherein South Africans cannot seem to gain the experience required for many entry-level positions because these requirements are so prolific.

“Young people finish their education and seek work only to be told they don’t qualify because they lack experience [...] I am saying young people must work, they will get experience at work. This thing of blocking young people because of experience must come to an end.” — Fikile Mbalula, ANC Secretary-General 

Mbalula’s address specifically targeted youth, demanding that employers give equal opportunity to everyone who is seeking a given position, regardless of age. “They must not hire their friends and girlfriends,” Mbalula said, acknowledging a culture of nepotism associated with municipal and government positions. “People must be given jobs equally.”

He also advised his audience to come directly to him if an employer demands years of experience for an entry-level role. “When you look for work at the Madibeng municipality, and they ask you for experience, tell them to come to me,” he said. “Let people gain experience on the job.”

The address was given during the ANC’s 114th anniversary celebrations, alongside speeches by ANC Youth League (ANCYL) President Collen Malatji, ANC Treasurer-General Gwen Ramokgopa, and President Cyril Ramaphosa. During his address, Ramaphosa also recognized unemployment as a weakness to address in the ANC’s leadership. He did so following his speech during the celebration’s preparation when Ramaphosa said unemployment “keeps [him] awake at night”.

Mbalula has been a longtime advocate for youth and job creation in South Africa, starting his ANC career in the ANCYL as a teenager and eventually becoming president of the organization. Since taking the position of ANC secretary-general in 2022, unemployment has been a major focus on Mbalula’s agenda. At the ANC National Executive Committee in October, Mbalula called unemployment “the single greatest threat to [South African] democracy”. 

Though the ANC celebration garnered national attention, the location in which Mbalula made his address is notable. Of the nine provinces in South Africa, the North West has the second highest official unemployment rate at 38.1%, while their combined unemployment rate—refering to those who are discouraged from finding work and those who work insufficient hours—is the highest nationwide at 52.5%. At the event, Mbalula aimed his call for the removal of entry-level requirements directly to the employers and job seekers of the North West. 

Though Mbalula’s announcement was generally well-received, some South Africans are skeptical that such a policy will actually be implemented. In 2018, the former Minister of Public Service and Administration announced a policy that would remove experience requirements from entry-level positions—just as Mbalula announced he would attempt to do. The 2018 initiative is still in effect, but with little enforcement and major implementation issues. In 2023, President Ramaphosa repeated these demands during his State of the Nation Address. “We reiterate our call to companies, departments and SOEs to remove the requirement for work experience for young people seeking entry-level positions,” he said. Though these calls to action by the ANC have been repeated throughout the duration of Ramaphosa’s presidency, little appears to have been done to adequately carry out such policies.

Divisions in the ANC

Mbalula made his remarks in an interesting context, doing so after ANC National Chairperson Gwede Mantashe claimed that young people expect the government to provide them with jobs, and do not go out looking for themselves. “We have created a situation where people sit back, you sit in the sun, and expect the state to deliver,” Mantashe said in an interview with SABC News, arguing that the government’s policies have become too progressive. 

The comment received massive backlash from organizations across the nation, including from the ANCYL, whose president called the comments “detached from the reality of the people of South Africa.” The Democratic Alliance (DA) also responded to Mantashe’s comments, saying that unemployed South Africans “are confronted daily by constant and systemic barriers to success” in a statement on January 7. Mbalula himself said that Mantashe must clarify his statements, and that this is a “serious matter.” 

Mantashe later walked-back these statements on January 14 while speaking at Nyanyadu Primary School in Dundee, KwaZulu-Natal. He insisted his critics were misquoting him, and emphasized that he never called young people “lazy”, as many commentators were saying. He claimed his intention was to encourage people to “get up and look for jobs”, reframing his statement as one intended to encourage activism rather than shame those struggling with unemployment. 

The Bigger Picture  

As of the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey, South Africa’s national unemployment rate sits at 31.9%. Youth unemployment is even higher, at 58.5% for those aged 15-24 and 38.4% for those aged 25-34 — the second highest youth unemployment in the world. Though each of these figures have seen decreases from the previous quarter, the reality remains that almost a third of working-age South Africans struggle to find work, with youth facing the brunt of the problem. 

An October 2025 survey found that unemployment is the foremost problem that citizens want the government to address, cited by 55% of respondents as one of their top three priorities for government action. Though 248,000 new jobs were created in 2025, this progress is clearly insufficient as around 8 million individuals still remain unemployed. Mbalula has yet to announce whether the lowering of entry barriers will take a legal standing yet, but his ability to follow through on these promises will certainly impact the results of the 2026 municipal elections in November.