At the end of February 2011, 800 young South Africans have started training to become professional chefs. This event marked the debut of the government’s job creation drive in the hospitality industry. It is also a part of the National Youth Chef Training Programme, initiated by the Department of Tourism and expected to cost more than R30 million over the next three years.
The National Youth Chief Training Programme is only one of numerous drives the government has pledged to undertake starting 2011, which has been officially designated as the year of job creation in South Africa. Billions of rands are to be poured into job promotion schemes.
According to a South Africa.info report, the government plans to allocate the following resources over the next three years:
- R73-billion to the Expanded Public Works Programme (community-based projects, environmental and social programmes, and maintenance of roads and infrastructure, housing, residential infrastructure and services).
- R55-million to Khula Enterprises Finance (government's small business funding agency, to disburse finances directly to business owners, without going through banks and finance intermediaries).
- R282-million to the South African Micro-finance Apex Fund (also for small businesses).
- R600-million to enterprise investment incentives.
- R10-billion to the Industrial Policy Action Plan (for promoting investments in the automotive, textile, film and television and some other small manufacturing and tourism enterprises).
- R2.2-billion to land reform and agricultural development programmes that are focused on rural job creation and poverty reduction.
- R2.2-billion to environmental employment programmes.
The money to be pumped into the economy and the announced tax-break incentives for the manufacturing sector are aimed at ensuring that the ANC, which has been the party in power since the first-ever universal suffrage election in 1994, fulfils its promise of creating five million jobs by 2020. That would mean cutting the unemployment rate to about 15 percent. Currently, the official data puts the unemployment at about 25 percent. Among the young people between the ages of 18 and 29, the unemployment rate is as high as 42 percent.
The year 2011 is also the year of local elections in South Africa. According to many, that is one of the underlying reasons why ANC and its government have chosen to focus on delivering on the promises made regarding job creation.
Everyone in South Africa agrees that the current levels of unemployment and poverty are intolerable. Differences arise when it comes to how to go about reducing unemployment and eradicating poverty.
The powerful South African trade union federation, Cosatu, has been campaigning for decent work, which implies relatively high minimum wages, job protection and more state intervention in the economy.
On the other hand, the businesses say that the low growth of employment in South Africa during the last decade is the consequence of high wage hikes, overprotective and restrictive labour legislation, and the unproportionate strength of trade unions (Cosatu draws much of its influence from the political alliance with ANC). In short, the businesses believe that the easier it is to hire and fire workers, the more jobs would be created.
During the last ten years, South African economy has recorded impressive expansion. However, that growth did not translate into more jobs. In 1994, ANC inherited a R800 billion a year economy. Today, South African economy turns R2.2-trillion a year, which represents an increase of 2,5 times. This much larger economy has about the same number of people in formal employment as it did in the late 1980s.
Image source: MediaClub South Africa
