A licence to thrive

A driver’s licence can be the tiny bridge between qualification and employment. That is why FOCUS, SHEQ MANAGEMENT and Charmont Media Global have proudly chosen to back Drive to Thrive.

At FOCUS, we spend our lives talking about mobility. We write about bakkies, vans, trucks, buses and coaches. We talk to fleet owners about productivity, manufacturers about new technology and professional drivers about life on the road.

But there is another group of drivers we do not talk about nearly enough. They are the young South Africans who simply need a licence so that they can get to work, qualify for a job or be considered for an opportunity in the first place.

That is why Charmont Media Global, publisher of FOCUS and SHEQ MANAGEMENT, together with both magazines, has chosen to endorse Drive to Thrive, an initiative of the Cyril Ramaphosa Education Trust (CRET).

That question I keep asking…

For me, the decision to back Drive to Thrive is deeply personal. I have interviewed so many promising young South Africans over the years. They are bright, articulate, determined and qualified. They have done what society told them to do: they studied, worked hard and pushed through financial pressure, family responsibilities and a labour market that can feel brutally unforgiving. Then, almost casually, I ask: “Do you have a driver’s licence?” Far too often, the answer is no. That one answer can change everything.

Drive to Thrive responds to one of South Africa’s most overlooked barriers to employment: access to a driver’s licence. The campaign supports learner and driver’s licence training, promotes road safety and is developing pathways aimed at increasing women’s participation in mobility-related work.

A qualification is not always enough

The logic is beautifully simple: A degree may open a door – but mobility can determine whether a young person is able to walk through it.

CRET points out that graduates in engineering, sales, logistics, field services and community development can lose opportunities because a valid driver’s licence is treated as a standard employment requirement. The organisation has already supported more than 97 driver-training beneficiaries and estimates the cost per graduate at R5,500 or more.

That is not a huge amount of money when measured against the value of a first salary, a career and the dignity of being able to support yourself and your family. But, for a young person without income, R5,500 can be an insurmountable sum.

The practical bridge we keep missing

Recently, I received an exceptional thought leadership piece penned by Nomaswazi Nkosi, senior communications officer at the Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation. Titled “No licence, no job”, her article told the story of Tumelo Malebana, a BSc Civil Engineering graduate who lost two job opportunities because he did not have a driver’s licence. Today he is a site engineer at WBHO, but his experience raises a deeply uncomfortable question: how many capable young South Africans are sitting at home – not because they lack talent or qualifications, but because they lack mobility?

 “There is no shortage of qualified young South Africans,” Nkosi writes. “What is in short supply are the small, practical bridges between a qualification and a job offer. A driver’s licence, on the evidence of CRET’s own graduates, may be one of the more affordable bridges the country could choose to build at scale. It costs a few thousand rand per young person; the alternative, a graduate stuck on the sidelines for want of a licence, costs the economy a great deal more.”

Her next point that has stayed with me: “South Africa does not have a shortage of talented young people. It has a shortage of pathways that connect talent to opportunity. Sometimes that pathway is not another qualification, internship or training programme. Sometimes it is a driver’s licence. One licence will not solve youth unemployment. But for the graduate waiting for a first opportunity, it can be the difference between being qualified and being employed. And that is a bridge worth building.” I could not agree more!

Mobility is employability

We often talk about unemployment as if it is one enormous, immovable problem that can only be tackled through massive policy interventions. Of course, South Africa needs economic growth, investment, better education, functioning infrastructure and more jobs – but that does not mean we should ignore the barriers that we can remove right now.

Sometimes employability means a CV, sometimes training, sometimes work experience… and sometimes the legal ability to drive. CRET’s approach recognises that the transition from education to employment isn’t automatic. Its support model includes financial and academic assistance, mentorship, psychosocial care, career guidance, work-readiness training and soft-skills development. Drive to Thrive extends that thinking into mobility.

Since 2020, CRET has treated driver’s licence training as part of employability support rather than an optional extra. Participants begin with simulator training before moving to practical lessons with registered instructors.

Beyond four wheels

I also like the fact that Drive to Thrive isn’t stopping with a basic car licence. CRET and Drivio are developing a female driving instructor pilot for 10 young women, combining theory, simulator-based learning, practical instruction and supervised workplace exposure. The aim is to help women enter a field that has traditionally been male-dominated.

There is also a “Two Wheels to Work” pathway. Recruitment has begun for 15 female candidates linked to the Takealot and Mr D delivery ecosystem, with support around Code A licensing, road safety and work readiness for last-mile delivery and e-commerce logistics opportunities.

Another pathway being developed with Motion One looks beyond simply passing the test. It includes defensive driving, first aid, vehicle orientation, automotive technical awareness, job shadowing and workplace exposure. This is important because a licence is the beginning, not the destination. It can unlock work in sales, field service, technical support, delivery, engineering, community outreach and countless other roles where mobility is part of the job.

The drivers we don’t usually celebrate

At FOCUS, we celebrate professional drivers constantly – and rightly so! Truck drivers keep supermarket shelves stocked. Bus and coach drivers connect communities. Van and bakkie drivers support trades, small businesses, technicians and service industries. Delivery drivers have become fundamental to the modern economy.

But what about the young graduate driving a company car to visit a client? What about the newly qualified engineer who needs to get to a construction site? What about the salesperson travelling between customers, the field technician, the community worker, the trainee or the young entrepreneur who simply needs to move?

They are drivers too. Their vehicles may never appear on the cover of FOCUS. Nobody will write a road test about the modest hatchback they use to get to their first job. But that little car – and the licence that allows them to drive it – may represent something enormous: independence.

The chance to say yes

That is what Drive to Thrive fundamentally means to me: it gives a young person one fewer reason to hear “no”. No, you cannot apply because you do not have a licence. No, you cannot take the position because you cannot travel. No, you cannot visit customers. No, you cannot work on site.

Imagine replacing those answers with one simple word: “yes”. Yes, I can drive. Yes, I can get there. Yes, I can take the job. Yes, I can start. For an individual, that can change a life. For a household, it can change the future. For our country, multiplied across thousands of young people, it can change far more.

A cause close to our heart

Charmont Media Global, FOCUS and SHEQ MANAGEMENT are endorsing Drive to Thrive because this initiative sits at the intersection of so much that we care about: mobility, employment, skills development, road safety and economic participation. If we can use our platforms to draw attention to a practical solution that helps young South Africans move from unemployment into work, then we should.

This is not about pretending that a driver’s licence will fix South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis – it will not. This is about refusing to let a solvable problem remain unsolved.

CRET describes mobility as a pathway to employment, independence, contribution and leadership. It also makes the wider point that behind every graduate is potentially a strengthened household, an interrupted cycle of hardship and a reimagined future. That is what makes this initiative so heart-warming. We are not talking about giving somebody a luxury. We are talking about giving somebody a chance.

Small card, big difference

I keep coming back to the young people I have interviewed who did not have licences. Some of them have probably lost opportunities they never even knew existed. They may never have applied because the role required a licence. They may have been screened out before they could explain what they were capable of. That should bother all of us.

South Africa has extraordinary young people. We meet them every day. They are innovative, ambitious and hungry to contribute. What they need are pathways. Sometimes those pathways are complicated, sometimes they are expensive… and sometimes, wonderfully, they are as practical as helping somebody learn to drive.

That is why we are backing Drive to Thrive. Because mobility creates possibility. Because a licence can create employment. Because every young South African who moves from “I am qualified” to “I have a job” is a victory worth celebrating.