'Prisoners get three meals a day while youth go to bed on empty stomachs': Malema

EFF leader Julius Malema has criticised the government for prioritising prisoners' welfare over that of young people struggling with unemployment and poverty.

Speaking at a mass funeral service in Vryheid in KwaZulu-Natal for seven of the 10 party members who died in a bus crash near Ulundi on Monday night, Malema highlighted the disparity between government spending on prisoners vs support for young people.

Malema said their deaths were a painful reminder that young black people in the country were not prioritised.

“Almost one in every two young people is without work,” he said. “They wake up every morning with no salary, no opportunity and no dignity. They stand on street corners with degrees and diplomas while others are even denied the chance to study because this government has failed to deliver free, quality, decolonised education and promises made on stages but forgotten in boardrooms.

“Meanwhile we live in a country where prisoners receive three meals a day, have access to free uniforms and are offered education and rehabilitation programmes while young people go to bed on an empty stomach, wear torn clothes and are forced to drop out of school because they cannot afford registration fees.”

The youth unemployment rate in South Africa increased to 46.1% in the first quarter of 2025, with millions of young people aged 15 to 34 without work.

Malema argued that it's contradictory for the government to provide prisoners with basic necessities like food, clothing and education while neglecting the needs of young people.

“We do not say this to dehumanise prisoners, many of whom are victims of the very same system, but we must ask: how can a government feed and clothe those it has arrested but refuse to clothe and educate those it claims to represent? It is a contradiction that speaks to the core of this regime’s failure. It invests more in prison maintenance than it does in human development. It builds more jails than schools, it responds to poverty not with opportunity but with punishment.”

The EFF has called for the introduction of a permanent unemployment grant to restore dignity to millions of people trapped outside the economy.

Malema argued the government has the resources to address youth unemployment but lacks the political will, citing the national dialogue that could cost R700m.

“This country can afford it. There’s no shortage of money, only shortage of political will. We have R700m for a useless national dialogue but when it comes to feeding children of the poor, suddenly the budget is under pressure. R700m of talking is available for such nonsensical projects yet our people are unemployed.”

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