DJ Zinhle was the subject of backlash on social media over interesting comments she made in a recent interview.
What DJ Zinhle said about ‘unemployable’ South Africans
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The music producer and businesswoman sat down with Radio 702‘s Relebogile Mabotja to discuss her career, family and lessons learned from failure.
While the interview was, for the most part, laced with recipes to success and navigating adversity, a snippet about the difficulty she’s faced in filling up positions in her businesses went viral for the wrong reasons.
In the clip, which you can watch below, DJ Zinhle criticised the skill levels of South Africa’s youth, claiming that “a lof them are unemployable.”
“It bugs me how long it takes for us to fill in positions at [Era by DJ Zinhle]. Just to find the right person for our stores? It literally takes longer than it should in a country that has so much unemployment,” she said.
Statistics South Africa, in its recent quarterly labour force survey, noted that youth unemployment in the first three months of 2024 rose to 45.5%.
Interestingly, however, the 2022 Labour Market Dynamics in South Africa report shows that work experience is a crucial component in increasing the employability of youth.
“The experience “dividend” reveals that youth with experience outperform youth without experience by a margin of 4 to 1. Clearly, initiatives such as experiential learning, apprenticeships, or other forms of exposure to the workplace have far-reaching implications in addressing the scourge of youth unemployment,” the report noted.
Of course, the greater point DJ Zinhle highlighted was the government’s failure in providing adequate basic education.
However, the message did not particularly translate well to many social media users, who called out the producer’s hypocrisy, considering her highest education level was matric.
Here are some of the reactions we picked:
