Black graduates have more difficulty finding work than whites after leaving university, Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande said on Thursday.
He said 55 percent of black graduates from Stellenbosch were unlikely to find a job in their first year after receiving their degrees, compared to 12 percent of white students.
He said 29 percent of black graduates from the University of Witwatersrand could not procure employment in their first year after university, compared to seven percent of white students.
While further data was not available, Nzimande argued that the results could likely be found across higher education in South Africa.
“Most black youngsters do not have the family and other connections into the labour market that are generally enjoyed by whites and the few, more affluent blacks,” Nzimande said in his prepared remarks at Walter Sisulu University.
The minister said historical inequality and poverty determined access to education and the ability to achieve academically.
Nzimande said this was despite efforts by the government to transform education.
He said historically black universities also remain disadvantaged in terms of resources and quality of academic programmes. - Sapa