Mr Speaker, hon President, Deputy President and members of this House, the growing national consensus that unemployment is a serious threat to this country is encouraging. The biggest challenge, however, is creating those jobs. In this context I believe that millions of jobless people would rather have their heaven on this earth, by being gainfully employed, than in the hereafter, whether they carry an ANC membership card or not.
This is simply because having a job will restore their dignity and their self-esteem. They will be able to support themselves and their families and not depend on government handouts. They will also be able to resist unscrupulous, political blackmail.
According to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey, the unemployment rate has dropped overall by 1,3 percentage points to 24% between the third and fourth quarters of 2010. Regrettably, the report also shows that the economy has lost 712 000 jobs in the last two years.
Furthermore, and this is the scary part, the survey indicates that more than six million South Africans are said to be unemployed, if we use the broader definition that includes discouraged job seekers.
Ke ka moo Morena Sepikara ke dirago boipilet?o go mmu?o wa ANC gore o tlogele go fela o tshepi?a Ma-Afrika Borwa gore mmu?o o tla ba direla me?omo. Batho ba lapile ebile ba itlhobogile, ka lebaka la go hloka me?omo. Gomme go a nyami?a gore mmu?o o t?welepele ka go ba tshepi?a seo o ka se kgonego go se dira. Seo ke boradia, gomme ditlamorago t?a mokgwa wo di ka re bakela mathata le masetlapelo a go ?ii?a ge mmu?o o t?welapele ka go se hlokomele taba ye. (Translation of Sepedi paragraph follows.)
[Hon Speaker, I therefore make an appeal to the ANC-led government to stop making empty job promises to the South Africans. People are fed up; they have lost hope on job promises. It is therefore really sad that the government keeps on making empty promises. This is dangerous and it will have bad repercussions. Government needs to be careful on this matter.]
Mr Speaker, President Zuma once again made big promises last Thursday night during his state of the nation address, as is his wont to do. I sincerely pray that his lofty words will turn into thousands of sustainable jobs because the country needs them.
However, the ANC government needs to have a radical mind-set shift to appreciate that it is not the job of government to create jobs. The government's primary responsibility and duty regarding jobs is to create an economic environment that sets every South African free to unleash their potential to create employment for themselves and for as many of us as possible.
This country needs entrepreneurs and other job creators like we need air to breathe; to create as many small businesses as we can to give many of our millions of desperate South Africans jobs. In this regard I have to defer to Minister Patel who referred to the number of jobs that are being created by the private sector. He just proves a point.
The ANC government's doublespeak does not help the situation in this regard. How is it possible for the government to plead for the creation of jobs and, in the same breath, to contemplate the banning of labour brokers? You cannot create jobs by obliterating a whole industry. This is but one stark example of such unhelpful contradictions.
Poverty is choking most of South Africa and crime is making the situation worse. The antidote to these enemies among us is gainful employment. We need all our smarts to destroy these enemies that have the potential to destabilise our young democracy. Unfortunately, instead of crafting and implementing imaginative plans to make it conducive for the nation to create the millions of jobs we need, the ANC government and its alliance partners are preoccupied with banal philosophical debates and arguments about jobs versus decent work, the nationalisation of mines or state ownership of a mine or an oil company.
This fruitless haggling creates uncertainty and sends the wrong signals and messages to potential investors. Anglo American Chief Executive Cynthia Carroll has warned that companies will not invest in South African mines if they are nationalised.
Mr Zola Skweyiya, one of our former comrades here and now South Africa's High Commissioner in London, has said that each time calls are made to nationalise the mines here, his job in the international community to encourage investors to South Africa is made more difficult. These voices must not be ignored.
The Minister of Mineral Resources, Susan Shabangu, should hold firm to her earlier position that nationalisation of mines will not happen in her lifetime. While this talk is happening, unemployment continues to get worse as thousands of young South African school leavers enter a jobless world. Their disappointment and frustration cannot be described without a lump in the throat or a tear in the eye.
My DA colleague, Tim Harris, has thrown a number of suggestions into President Zuma's idea box that could create millions of jobs. Without detracting from what the President has said in his state of the nation address, I would like to commend them to the President.
These suggestions are as follows: He should put his full political weight behind the youth wage subsidy he announced this time last year; announce drastic reforms in the wage bargaining arrangements; announce the immediate withdrawal of the four proposed labour Bills; request Parliament to undertake an urgent review of all existing labour laws to relieve small businesses from more onerous provisions - and I again nod my head to Minister Patel because he has referred to this; and he should also intervene in the economic policy standoff that is developing in the Cabinet because of the new Department of Economic Development.
Speaker, dit is 'n tragiese skande en baie hartseer dat die armes en die werklose mense van hierdie land net voor elke verkiesing met kospakkies gekoop word om hulle stil te hou en hul stemme te kry. Dit gebeur terwyl die familielede van die ANC se magskring bevoordeel word deur omstrede swart ekonomiese bemagtigingstransaksies. Suid-Afrikaners neem kennis van hierdie transaksies en die bevoordeling van sommiges en sal nie langer mislei word nie. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Speaker, it is a tragic shame and very sad that the poor and unemployed people of this country are being bought with food parcels just before each election to keep them quiet and to secure their votes. This takes place while the family members of the ANC's power circle are benefiting from controversial black economic empowerment transactions. South Africans are taking note of these transactions and the fact that it is beneficial only to some, and will no longer be misled.]
Mr Speaker, our country is at the crossroads of success or failure. I, like millions of South Africans, want to live in a peaceful and prosperous South Africa in which every man, woman and child is free from poverty, disease and crime; where every South African who needs to work can be gainfully employed.
I do not know whether we will achieve this ideal. What I do know is that with the current ANC government policies on the labour market and job creation we will never make it. Empty promises will most certainly not get us there. The time for talking is over. We must make the tough choices now and get South Africa working.