South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday called on other political parties to refrain from raising people’s hopes on job creation because of the upcoming elections on April 14.
Speaking at the annual national congress of the trade union Solidarity in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Manuel said South Africa is faced with the challenge of job creation and appealed to other parties to be careful not to make job promises that they cannot fulfil.
“People who lie to the unemployed are insensitive and don’t understand how dehumanising it is for the unemployed, who are suffering because of lack of jobs. I therefore appeal also to trade unions and businesses to work with [the] government in tackling this challenge,” he said.
Manuel added that answers to the solutions for unemployment challenges cannot be found in textbooks.
“Better investment and improvement of skills is what we should be focusing on in order to address these challenges,” he asserted.
Manuel poured cold water on criticism of the government’s planned public works programme, which is aimed at creating new job opportunities for the unemployed.
Critics have said the programme is geared at creating temporary jobs only, but offers no long-term solutions to unemployment.
“Public works programmes everywhere and anywhere in the world are by nature temporary. The aim is to give people skills and training opportunities that they can then use somewhere else,” Manuel said.
He added that research has shown that people who have worked before are likely to be better entrepreneurs.
Manuel said work is in progress by the South African Revenue Service, the National Treasury, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Labour to have a single source for unemployment data.
“The problem with collecting this data is because things are still done the old-fashioned way and we need to change this format. Even unemployment data in the United States is not that accurate at all.” — I-Net Bridge