English is above all a verbalizing language (as opposed to, say, French, which is a nominalizing language). So, use an active verb aka action verb. In other words, we have strong verbs and they have strong nouns. This is a generalization that happens to be true.

- Unemployment gnaws away at South Africa.
- Unemployment plagues South Africa.
- Unemployment undermines South African society.
- Unemployment burdens South Africa.
- Unemployment throttles South Africa.

Here's a sample:

Read a good weather forecast and you’ll find the weather patterns described with such active verbs as “hammered,” “trounced,” “sliced,” and “eased.” Read a good sportscast and you’ll find gleeful discussions of how a losing team was “throttled,” “bashed,” “whipped,” or “humiliated.”

[active verbs][1]


  [1]: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/p3_p5.html