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Generation Z is the unhappiest generation in South Africa, and the only one trailing their global peers on happiness measures. They are navigating a world of expanding possibility alongside escalating complexity, and the tension is showing. Nearly a quarter say their life lacks meaning. A similar number feel they have lost control over their own lives.
“This isn’t a motivation problem. Speak to enough young people and a pattern emerges: they’re not short on drive or ideas, they’re short on a way in. The problems they care about are large and systemic, and every step they consider raises ten more questions, so many find themselves at a standstill,” says Olwethu Kwayiba, a Programme Lead at the Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at the University of Cape Town.
Kwayiba adds, “What this generation is missing is a framework for moving forward. The ability to read a situation clearly, ask the right questions, and take deliberate steps forward even when the path is not obvious.”
Design thinking is a human-centred approach to problem-solving developed for exactly this kind of complexity. Embraced across industries, communities, and classrooms globally, it is about deeply understanding the people affected by a challenge, reframing what the real problem is, and co-creating solutions through collaboration, empathy, and experimentation. On the African continent, where the challenges are complex and the contexts are distinct, it is increasingly being adapted and reclaimed as a way of thinking that resonates with values already deeply embedded here.
“As a practical method, it could work in three ways,” explains Kwayiba. “First, it helps clarify what actually matters: not the problem as the world presents it, but the specific human reality underneath it. Second, it teaches the importance of framing the right question before rushing toward an answer, because how a problem is defined almost always determines whether the solution will land. Third, it gets people moving: building rough ideas, testing them quickly, and treating the results as information rather than verdict. The shift is not from confusion to certainty. It is from confusion to action.”
Research into youth empowerment programmes that teach these habits has found measurable improvements in participants’ sense of agency, problem-solving confidence, and ability to navigate complex, real-world challenges. A 2025 meta-analysis reviewing 18 peer-reviewed studies across more than 1,600 students from 11 countries found that design thinking significantly enhanced intrinsic motivation, creativity, resilience, and adaptability, with results consistent regardless of location.
Sinalo Bambeni experienced this shift firsthand. Before she encountered design thinking, approaching a complex challenge would send her into a spiral of overthinking. “I’d theorise until I didn’t feel confident enough to take action.” Working under tight time constraints, prototyping rough ideas, and keeping momentum even when things did not go to plan changed her approach fundamentally. “When you do that for three months, twice a week, it completely changes your outlook.”
Simphiwe Petros approached it from a different direction. An MBA student researching the impact of Indigenous language and teacher training on Early Childhood Development literacy, he was introduced to design thinking in a single workshop integrated into his research course. “That one-day workshop changed everything,” he says. “It sparked an interest in engaging more with design thinking. I appreciated the human-centred approach to problem-solving.” He applied it directly to his MBA industry report, using empathy and deep listening to keep his research tethered to the people it was meant to serve. “Understanding the design thinking process and how it’s driven by values was my biggest takeaway. It is a tool I will continue to use in my career.”
Two different people, two different challenges, the same shift: from feeling overwhelmed by complexity to having a way to move through it.
“The mindsets behind this are learnable,” says Kwayiba. “The willingness to ask better questions. The ability to sit with a messy problem without panicking. The courage to try something small before having all the answers. These are not personality traits. They are skills. And they are as useful for figuring out your next step in life as they are in any professional setting.”
“The world is not going to get less complicated,” he concludes. “But the difference between a generation that waits and a generation that moves is having the tools to take the first step.”