The political stability in South Africa will not be sustainable if the levels of unemployment and poverty are not reduced, according to the National Union of Mineworkers’ (NUM) 2004 secretariat report.
The report, released during the union’s special congress held in Midrand on Thursday, says unemployment in the country has increased from 16% in 1996 to between 30% and 41%.
“This means that four out of ten economically active citizens are not working. This high level of unemployment is a major contributing factor to the depth of poverty we see in our society,” says the report.
Although the union was in support of the government’s public works programmes, it said the programmes were more poverty alleviation oriented than job creation initiatives.
“People work for a limited duration at very low wages. If public works programmes are managed properly they can be used for skills development among our people.
“This can only happen if the training aspect is consciously included in the programme. It would even be more beneficial to society if training provided in these schemes can be accredited.
“Unfortunately in the majority of programmes, training is not given the necessary priority attention,” says the report.
The report also noted that while the government had done splendid work in improving old age pensions and child grants, “we have not seen the debate on the national social security net being taken forward”.
“The urgent challenge facing South Africa is to build a national social security net. It should be made compulsory for all retirement funds to have a certain portion allocated for pensions.
The State should have access to the information that resides in private sector retirement funds. This can relieve a lot of state funds for other projects,” said the report.