Chairperson, we have forever been talking of new economic strategies to tackle, amongst other issues, the high rate of unemployment, but the translation of these into action seems to take ages. Our economy continues in its failure to be labour absorbent.
Further to the 900 000 jobs losses due to the recession last year, we continue to see massive job losses, with Statistics SA having reported 4,6 million in the first quarter and 126 000 finance jobs which were lost in the first quarter of the year. Any economic growth must first address unemployment as a priority. I thank you.