The Heartbreak Called South Africa—A Matric Boy’s Cry for a Future

Written looking at an 18-year-old Matriculant, Class of 2025

He is 18 years old. In a few months, he will write his final matric exams. They tell him this is the beginning of the rest of my life. But if he is honest, it feels more like the beginning of a long, hard road with no map.

He is not complaining. He is scared—and he is not the only one. All around him, he sees young people trying their best, holding on to hope, studying by candlelight, showing up when there’s barely anything to eat in the house. But deep down, they all know what’s waiting for us after matric:

Nothing.

• No jobs.

• No opportunities.

• No direction.

The Pain of Seeing No Future

We grew up being told to study hard so we could get a job one day. But now they are here, on the edge of adulthood, and reality is cruel. South Africa’s youth unemployment is one of the highest in the world. Even those who went to university are sitting at home, degrees collecting dust while their dreams die slow deaths.

Lots of students finished university last year. They have been applying for jobs every day, but there’s just nothing. The youth say, sometimes it feels like we never even existed. That’s what’s waiting for the new matriculants. They are the next generation of the forgotten.

It’s heartbreaking. And it’s hard for them not to feel angry. Angry that they had been lied to. Angry for failing. Angry that this country—our country—has so much potential but keeps breaking its young people.

So, how do they lash out? Who do they blame? Politicians scream, It is the white man, it is apartheid. They rally the youth, they do not know better, they do not know: The past is dead, it cannot be changed, most of the people of the past are dead, they are not here, they are long turned to dust, but we will dig them out, we will speak to their dead bones, arise, arise so that I can blame you!

They do not know looking at the past will make you fall into a ditch full of sewage; there is no hope in the past, there is no future in the past, only regret and pain. It is the devil's playground, with politicians as his minions.

The Harsh Realisation: If There’s No Job, We Have to Create One. Ditching the past is the first step.

Sitting in the classroom, staring at nothing, the youth need to know this one truth:

No one is coming to save them.

• If you want a future, you will have to build it yourself.

• If you want money, you must make it.

• If you want to live, you will have to hustle.

There is only one option for our youth, one solution: becoming an ENTREPRENEUR.

Not because it’s cool, or glamorous, or easy. But it’s the only option they have left.

But How Do They Even Start?

The youth may say:

I don’t have money. I don’t have connections. I don’t even know what a business plan looks like. All I have is a burning desire to make something out of nothing.

Maybe I can sell something. Fix something. Help people with something they need. I don’t know.

What I do know is that I’m tired of waiting for a job that will never come.

The answer: Start small.

• Watching free YouTube videos about business.

• Read articles on your phone at night.

• Talking to people who’ve started side hustles.

• Asking questions.

• Learn.

• Grind and hustle.

And most importantly, you started believing in yourself, even when no one else did.

To South Africa: We Still Believe, But We're Hurting

This is the heartbreak of being young in South Africa. They are full of dreams but stuck in a system that’s collapsing. A system created to destroy them, wall them off, deceive them, and rob them of a future. A system that murders their dreams and gives them nightmares of hate to live by, just so that their sweat and pain are the gain of the politicians. They want to work. Want to build. They want to contribute. But they have not been given the chance. And this is done on purpose, to keep them down in the gutter, looking at the past, living for the past, and ignoring their future.

But soon they will say:

We’re tired, but we’re not giving up.

Even in the darkness, we’re trying to create light. Even in the rubble, we’re trying to build.

If you’re an 18-year-old, finishing matric this year and unsure of what’s next, know this:

You may be forgotten by the system, but you are not defeated.

• Find a way.

• Create something from nothing.

• Become the entrepreneurs this country needs.

• Because if we don’t build the future, no one will.

My name is Andreas B Burger. I have one objective: get the youth out of the clutches of self-serving arseholes called politicians and help them create a future. I am not politically correct inclined; I make no excuses for my behaviour, and I do not care about the opinions of the mass media.

As a young man, you need to stop looking for a job; it is not available. The government worked hard to destroy that for you. In this new dispensation, you have only this option: Become an entrepreneur, work for yourself.

Andreas Burger Consulting has set out a framework to help you move forward. I will make this available and teach those who want to become entrepreneurs how to do this. It will be hard, but it is possible; it is better than the alternative, doing nothing. Your pride as a man lies in your ability to create a purpose for yourself and build a future for your kids.