“What is going on?” is the question many young South Africans are asking at the moment. President Jacob Zuma’s announcement of a massive cabinet reshuffle. Along with the highly controversial decision to axe Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas. The shuffle has had a somewhat negative response from parliament and senior ANC MPs. But the main focus for us is the Gordhan and Jonas issue.
Junk Status
Pravin Gordhan and Jonas have contributed significantly to the stability of the economy and the prevention South Africa being downgraded to junk status. Which seems to be eminent now that they are gone. But that is all speculation at this early stage. But the burning question that will still be on most young South Africans (if not all South Africans) is… “What does this all mean for the future of the economy and the country as a whole?”
The Rands and Sense
There is no doubt that there will be a negative impact initially as the Rand has already weakened since the announcement of the cabinet reshuffle. But whether or not the economy will be able to recover from this drop is yet to be seen. As we are all aware, the availability of jobs is affected by the state of the economy as there is less foreign investment, people start to cut back on spending and hold on to their money more tightly. This all means businesses bottom lines suffer. Which results in less jobs being available for young South Africans entering the job market.
The future of job hunting may look rather dim at this stage but the economy will settle in time and things will hopefully go back to normal. The key at this stage is to ride this storm out by self-developing yourself as much as you can. Enough so, that organisations simply cannot say no to you. The alternative is that one could go into politics, there seem to be plenty ministerial positions opening up at the moment.
