The African National Congress (ANC) has officially declared South Africa's growing unemployment rate a national emergency, according to Okay Africa. In a statement to reporters Wednesday, ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule vowed to direct their attention to several implementation efforts to prevent the overwhelming statistic from increasing. 

"Lekgotla agreed that unemployment is now going to be a national emergency. We are declaring unemployment a national disaster. We want our deployees to focus on implementation," Magashule said.

Per Trading Economics, the current unemployment rate in South Africa is 27.6% while youth unemployment is more than double that at 55.2%. Government officials also announced this week South Africa's economy declined by the most in 10 years during the first quarter of 2019, coming in at 3.2% compared to 1.4% growth in 2018.

As for a plan to combat this crisis, the governing body gave themselves a five-year deadline to reduce the percentage from 27.6 to 14, outlining six action items they plan on undertaking to honor this goal. The South African reports some of these plans include reversing spatial apartheid and increasing the social wage, which means provide a more fruitful "living salary."

You can listen to Secretary General Magashule's full remarks below.


South-AfricaUnemployment