Chairperson, South Africa continues to face unemployment of epic proportions in the skills classes. While the Department of Labour claims to focus predominantly on reducing unemployment, poverty and inequality, under the leadership of the Minister, it appears unable or unwilling to tackle this blot on our landscape. Despite some improvement in job creation figures, nearly eight million people remain jobless. As we have heard in committee hearings again this morning, many, if not most, of the Setas are crippled by fraud, mismanagement and other serious problems. The Seta situation, in particular, is a national scandal.
To turn the situation around, we need a Labour department that makes job creation its absolute number one priority, with every strategy, every goal and every objective focused on that need. Until the department accepts this and redirects its efforts from overly racially based affirmative action and empowerment policies to tackling the skills crisis, which is one of the critical constraints to economic growth and job creation, the DA will vote against the Labour Budget Vote. South Africa deserves better. [Applause.]