Chairperson, I thank the participants in this debate, and I think it has largely been a constructive one. I want to start off with a couple of specific points and then make some more general observations.
First of all, Mr Lees, I think that we agree that the clothing and textile industry is an area where we can not only save existing jobs, but actually grow employment. The analysis we did, which underpinned our production incentive, showed that we actually need to raise productivity and encourage investment in the industry. We launched this scheme last year, and about 200 companies took it up. I am pleased to say that they not only saved jobs, but they actually grew jobs by a thousand.
The way forward is to raise our productivity and competitiveness, as well as identify particular niches in fast fashion, sportswear, and things of that sort.
I do not think that we have a future in this race for the bottom that you seem to be talking about. At one stage in a meeting I heard somebody saying that the workers in KwaZulu-Natal, whom you are talking about, are told: "Well, if you don't take the wages in Lesotho, we are going to go to Lesotho." The workers in Lesotho are told: "If you don't take the wages in Madagascar, we are going to go to Madagascar." The workers in Madagascar are told: "If you don't take the wages in Bangladesh, we are going to Bangladesh. I don't know where Bangladesh workers are going to go, but this race for the bottom does not work.
I also want to say that I don't believe that we went to them with a hard stick. We actually said that we wanted to give them a period of time in which to comply. They were the ones who wouldn't compromise. They did not want to become compliant and said: "To hell with it, we are not going to comply." I'm afraid that a lot of the deadlock is in their court.
Let me come to the question about entrepreneurship that was raised by Mr Sinclair. I need to say to him that we need to understand the context in South Africa. It was not just that the government under apartheid did not support entrepreneurship among black people; it actually intervened to actively discourage and undermine entrepreneurial development through a variety of measures. [Interjections.] That is the legacy that we have.
Now, I said in my speech that we acknowledge that we have not done enough as a government. I said that that was why we were prioritising incubation programmes and the roll-out of 250 of them. The whole idea of that is to train and support real, productive entrepreneurs.
For the rest, I was very pleased to see that a large number of participants recognised the fact that South Africa has a very strategic place in the world economy. This is reflected in the fact that we are a member of Brics. This is the most important grouping of developing countries in the world, one which is shaping a new agenda around governance of the world economy and developing a programme of co-operation between its own members. We are also a pivotal country in the most significant step in regional integration in the African continent, namely the tripartite integration process to which I have referred.
However, the point is that none of this will matter if we do not actually make an impact on the lives of our people right on the ground. I think that the hon Nyambi put the context of the remarks that were made by Deputy Minister Tobias-Pokolo correctly. The fact of the matter is that the majority of unemployed people in this country are under 25. The majority of young people in this country in that age group are also unemployed.
I think that the demand which is being heard, and which we have to respond to, is that we need to accelerate economic transformation and democratisation. That's what it's about! Business as usual and the status quo are not going to crack it. I think that is exactly what the growth path is about. The hon Gamede also put it correctly when he said that what we have to do is not just raise growth, carry on as we were, and get good marks from this or that rating agency because of this or that way we manage the economy. We have to increase investment in the real economy, increase labour absorption and broaden participation. That is the absolute imperative that confronts us.
We also have to take our services out to the poor and marginalised areas and communities in this country. That is the work Deputy Minister Thabethe does. We don't send her on international trips - or hardly ever. That is what we want to do; we want to take the services of the DTI out.
I just want to conclude as I started. We can't do it on our own. However much the DTI may be able to run around taking services to the people, we need active partnerships. We need active partnerships with provincial and local government. We discussed this at executive level through Minmec. However, I think that this House, the NCOP, is very well placed to do legislative oversight and to give us advice, encouragement and criticism about how we can do this better. We need that co-operation across the three spheres of government. We also need co-operation with the private sector and trade unions.
For example, we cannot run 250 incubation programmes with government officials alone. We need more active co-operation from business. That is one of the reasons we are turning around and saying the following to big business people who are earning black economic empowerment, BEE, points for various things - there are a variety of things in the scorecard. They can earn BEE points on things like enterprise development, procurement from black companies, and so on. Far too few of them do, and we are turning around and saying we will give them points if they do. But let us now start thinking about taking points away from their overall total if they don't. That's the debate and the discussion we want to have.
We are committed to creating real, genuine entrepreneurship, to reducing unemployment in this country, and in particular to focusing on youth, women, and young women, who are the poorest of the poor and the most disadvantaged, because they constitute more than 50% of the young unemployed.
Thank you very much for the debate and the input. We look forward to working with the NCOP and the select committee in the future. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.