Deputy Speaker, many speakers have referred to the very high levels of unemployment, poverty, and inequality in our nation. We as the ACDP partake of that sentiment and are similarly concerned. We welcome this Bill as a move in the right direction.
We recognise that it is, as this Bill points out, the private sector that is the engine for the creation of jobs and that government creates the environment for that. That is what is foreseen in this Bill. As we see it, it seeks to provide an employment tax incentive to encourage job creation. This is an incentive in the form of an amount by which employees' tax may be reduced.
As other speakers have indicated, we know that this Bill was opposed and stalled by Cosatu, to the detriment of job creation. It was suggested more than three years ago, but has only now seen the light of day. We commend the government for taking a strong stance at this stage and standing up to Cosatu, but, regrettably, it has taken a long time and should have been done a lot earlier.
Whilst we as the ACDP wholeheartedly support the Bill, we also expressed some concerns during the deliberations on it, such as the capping of the wage to qualify for the incentive, as we believe that this, in effect, excludes large numbers of persons from the low income group and those that are particularly vulnerable. We also regret that the incentive will apply only from 1 October 2013, which further excludes large numbers of existing workers, as pointed out by the hon Harris. However, we as the ACDP do understand that this is an experimental Bill, that it is phase one of a phased approach, and that one will be reviewing it in the future.
As we discussed in the committee, the one issue that we were unanimous about was the sunset clause, which would result in the ending of this tax incentive in the year 2017. This, we believed, would hang like a Sword of Damocles over employers and youthful employees. National Treasury made it very clear that they wanted the incentive to work and, in fact, they wanted to roll it out further. They would, in fact, be reviewing it with the intention to roll it out further. The logical approach for us was then to review the incentive in 2015 or 2016, rather than having a clause now that effectively ended it in that year.
We are, in effect, legislating for the repeal of an Act for a future Parliament which I, in my experience, have not seen before. However, we understand that, had we insisted on the amendment, it would have resulted in the further delay of this incentive Bill.
The ACDP will support this Bill. We commend the government on eventually implementing this tax incentive, albeit in a watered down version, and we trust that the private sector will embrace it and seek the common good of creating jobs for the youth and giving them hope for the future. Well done, hon Minister. I thank you. [Applause.]