Gqeberha to Gangnam: What would a South African Squid Game look like?

With Squid Game Season 3 still on everyone’s lips and social media feeds, South Africans are asking a uniquely local question: If the game came here, what would it look like?

The popular Netflix series, known for its commentary on debt, desperation, and inequality, may be set in South Korea, but its themes resonate with South Africans, as the country continues to grapple with youth unemployment and joblessness.

So if a South African version of Squid Game existed, what games would be played? And what does it say about our reality?

If there is one thing about South Africans, it is that we know how to add the local but lekker flavour to things, and childhood games are no exception. Before technology and AI, remember the good ol’ days of handball, dominoes (that might still be a thing at functions) and three sticks?

They may be childhood games, but these classics have roots in resilience, friendly competition, and most importantly, community. The games would have you befriending the kid down the road in an instant, resulting in a lasting friendship. In a Squid Game context, those roots would be flipped, where the sense of community crosses friendship and becomes rivalry, and ‘just playing’ becomes survival.

The original Squid Game contestants are desperate and indebted. They are also sometimes forgotten members of society or they were done dirty by the justice system. Replace South Korea’s credit card debt with South Africa’s exploding student loans, and debt and mortgages and the contestant pool doesn’t look that different.

The show’s critique of elite spectators — the masked VIPs betting on suffering as if humans are horses— also hits close to home in South Africa, where inequality is among the highest in the world. 

According to StatsSA, the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) for Q1:2025 indicates that young people aged 15 to 34 make up roughly 50,2% of South Africa’s working-age population, translating to approximately 20,9 million individuals. 

With an unemployment rate of 54,3% and the lowest youth labour force participation rate nationally at 39,8%, fewer than four in ten young people are either employed or looking for work.

Maybe the most chilling aspect of this thought experiment is how little tweaking the show’s premise needs to be applied. Whether it’s “Red Light, Green Light” under load shedding, or dodgeball played on potholed streets, the South African Squid Game would be less satire and more documentary.

IOL