I am grateful for that question and the answer is yes, we have a very substantial unemployment problem. There is no doubt about that, and one of the reasons for the increase of unemployment is because there are many, many new entrants to the labour market.
The fact of the matter is that democracy in South Africa has brought many women into the labour market who would never have been there under apartheid. [Applause.]
Secondly, the removal of the pass laws, the removal of all the apartheid laws, has brought freedom to many people, which they didn't have before and now they are looking for work. This is something, in a way, to recognise and even to celebrate because those people now feel that they can be part of the workforce, whereas if you had been in power before 1994, they would still have had the apartheid legislation and all the rest. So, the answer is yes. [Applause.]
Let me pay attention to the rest of the resolution facing us, and that is the question of decent work. Some people interpret the clause "decent work" as referring only to formal sector employees working in industry or in the service sector. We have discussed this thing at Polokwane and at the alliance economic summit, and we came up with a definition of what decent work means.
I hope the hon members on this side will accept that it is not only people in formal sector jobs who want decent work. There are plenty of people in the informal sector and in the second economy who also want decent work. Indeed, there are many casual workers - the kind of people that the labour brokers are so keen on - who also want decent work, so the ANC stands for decent work for everyone at all levels, even the most casual by-products of the formal sector. We want decent work and it is a very important concept that we must take forward.
Let me spend a little time on the question of building local industries, which is not as simple as some people think. The fact of the matter is, this government is about to embark on a huge infrastructure programme. It is important that that infrastructure programme should not only be carried out by the large construction firms in South Africa and international firms, but this infrastructure programme should be carried out with two things in mind.
Firstly, it must open up the whole country's economic activity, including the rural areas. We must ensure that the infrastructure programme also leads to decent roads in the Transkei and the former homelands. Therefore, infrastructure must be seen, not merely as the Gautrain and highways between the major cities of South Africa, but also as instruments of opening up the whole of South Africa, including the underdeveloped rural areas which have been neglected for so long.
Secondly, the infrastructure programme must surely include semiskilled workers and even unskilled workers who are given work, and not only highly- skilled workers in automated companies using high-quality machinery.
What kind of local industries do we want? I think sometimes we've been confused by the notion that all industries must be export-oriented, that the main way of developing South Africa must be through export-led growth. I don't agree! It seems to me that what the local industries must do is to provide work for people and goods for the local economy, and they must focus on the domestic market.
Indeed, there is a large debate internationally as to whether economic development and economic progress must be focused only on the international globalisation arena or whether industrial development and industries, local industries in particular, ought not to be primarily focused on the communities in which they are based and on the local market.
Let me give you an example, I visited Kgalagadi near Kuruman not long ago. It is an area with a great deal of mining. None of those mines are integrated in any way into the local community. When I asked people there what kind of local economy they have, they said they don't have an economy, forgetting that there are large mining companies in that area which are exporting South Africa's resources without any benefit to the local people in that area.
So when we talk about unemployment, decent work and building local industries, let us go to those very mining companies and tell them that we require them to outsource locally; to employ locally; to build infrastructure programmes, and above all to beneficiate so that we have local products and commodities which are part of the South African economy.
In summing up, I want to say that South Africa is very rich in natural resources, but the riches of South Africa do not benefit South Africa. They benefit companies overseas and they provide low-price commodities externally and internationally. It is time we reversed that. Our mineral and natural resources must generally benefit South Africa.
If you want to know more, please read my new book From the Freedom Charter to Polokwane: The Evolution of ANC Economic Policy. I recommend this to the hon Dreyer. Thank you.