Mitigating youth unemployment through government initiatives: The case of Buffalo City, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Abstract

Entrepreneurship serves as a vehicle for inclusive growth and economic development, thereby reducing poverty and mitigating the high unemployment rate in South Africa, where youth unemployment remains among the highest globally. The South African government has adopted encouraging entrepreneurship as a strategic measure to curb the high youth unemployment rate. In support of this strategic mechanism, the government provided tax incentives, financial support, and infrastructure to promote youth entrepreneurship. The study has followed a quantitative research approach. Purposive sampling was used to select 132 youth entrepreneurs within the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM) in the Eastern Cape. This study evaluates the effectiveness of these government-led initiatives. The study found that youth entrepreneurship success is strongly supported by tax incentives, financial support, infrastructure, and a conducive business environment. The findings also revealed that the success of youth entrepreneurship ventures contributes to basic infrastructure and helps mitigate the high youth unemployment rate. The success of entrepreneurship further encourages new ventures and reduces youth unemployment even more. Overall, the results also suggested that not all of these government incentives lead to direct employment without the entrepreneurs' success.