South Africa’s Youth Are Dangerously Unprepared for Risk

In the aftermath of the catastrophic floods that struck the Eastern Cape, claiming the lives of more than 98 South Africans, a powerful call has been issued for urgent national reform.

The Institute of Risk Management South Africa (IRMSA) has warned that unless South Africa equips its youth with the tools to understand and manage risk, the country will remain trapped in a destructive cycle of disaster, loss, and recovery.

Says IRMSA CEO Yvonne Mothibi: “We cannot treat disasters like the Eastern Cape floods as isolated weather events. They are devastating evidence of a much deeper, systemic failure a country that has not prepared its people, especially its young people, to anticipate, respond to, and recover from risk.”

Her message is clear: risk management is not just a corporate discipline it is a life skill. And right now, it is missing from the lives of over 16 million South African learners. From Grade R to matric, young people move through the education system without any structured exposure to risk thinking no frameworks for planning, no tools for navigating uncertainty, and no training in how to adapt when crises strike.

The gap only widens through university and into adulthood, even as young South Africans face a world of escalating challenges climate shocks, cybercrime, financial instability, rising mental health issues, and profound labour market shifts.

“We tell young people to lead, to be resilient, to shape the future,” Mothibi says. “But we don’t equip them with the tools to manage disruption, bounce back from setbacks, or think strategically about uncertainty. That’s not just an oversight it’s a national vulnerability.”
IRMSA is calling on government to embed risk education into the national curriculum, urging educators to bring real-world risk skills into the classroom, and appealing to corporates and civil society to fund scalable youth risk programmes. Without this collective shift, the cost of inaction will only grow.

And the consequences are not abstract. They are visible in the aftermath of every flood, every fire, every community caught unprepared. Inaction means more lives lost in preventable disasters. It means poor households losing everything because no one taught them how to plan for risk. It means young South Africans graduating with ambition but no resilience, starting careers without the foresight to navigate volatility, or raising families without understanding the dangers around them. It means a country lurching from crisis to crisis, always reacting, never ready.

Notes Mothibi: “We cannot keep responding with condolences and clean-up crews. We must build a generation that acts before it’s too late, one that is risk-ready, resilient, and equipped to lead us into a more secure future.”

IRMSA has committed to driving this transformation by working with schools, universities, and communities to embed risk literacy at every stage of learning. The goal is to build a national culture of resilience where managing uncertainty is second nature, and being prepared is part of everyday life.

To partner with IRMSA or learn more about youth-focused risk education programmes, visit www.irmsa.org.za.