President Jacob Zuma has conceded that government alone will not be in a position to provide the much needed jobs for South Africa and has called on the country’s private sector to come on board in the employment creation drive.
He told the SABC, in an interview aired on Sunday, that government will have to partner with other social partners to achieve its employment targets.
“It’s not like the kind of challenge that could be faced by one, it’s a challenge that needs all of us to participate, to some degree it’s a national challenge that needs all of us…it needs the government, it needs business, it needs the unions,” Zuma said.
This come after the announcement during the State of the Nation Address on Thursday that government will establish a jobs fund of R9 billion over the next three years to finance new job-creation initiatives while the private sector would get billions in tax breaks to stimulate job growth in manufacturing.
Government has listed job creation among the list of five priorities to be tackled in the next medium term period.
During the address in Parliament, Zuma said the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) had set aside R10 billion over the next five years for investment in economic activities with a high job creation potential. Departments will also be required to table their plans on job creation while a plan will be devised to ensure that all vacant posts in the public sector are filled.
On Sunday, the President said while the state will be doing its part, it would require all the support it can get to address the “unacceptably” high unemployment rate in the country.
“The fact of the matter is that we need to change the manner in which we have been doing things…you will appreciate that I said we going to put together all the small financial institutions that have been dealing for example with the economic activities helping businesses…we said we are going to put them together but I wouldn’t get into details but we are giving the money to the IDC so that so that those who need money can be able to get it.”
Government will also ensure that state-owned enterprises were roped in the job creation drive in the form of internship training programmes and learnerships. “Public enterprises are going to be looked at rigorously…as they need to ensure that they come on board. One of the things we will be looking at here is to ensure that we employ people who qualify for the jobs.”
Turning on education, health and social welfare, Zuma reiterated that education will remain the focus of his administration warning that wasting of teaching time will not be tolerated. “We have made the right choice of making education as the apex of our priorities, we went further to divide the department which was very huge and the tendency at the time was that the concentration was on higher level rather than the basic. Now we have got a 10-point plan at the level of basic education and I think we are doing the right thing.”
Zuma further attributed the improvement in last year’s matric results to the ruling party’s decision to split the Department of Education into two.
To alleviate poverty and boost social security, he said, government will use the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme introduced in provinces such as Limpopo and the Eastern Cape last year to ensure economic activity in rural areas. Authorities also planned to finalise the National Health Insurance policy and giving a third of the 1.2 million households living in informal settlements security of tenure within the next three years.
People in rural areas had a skill to look after live stock and ways will be explored to allow people to use these skills for economic benefits. “Why don’t we introduce dairy farming and say we will bring cattle for them so that they are able to look after cattle in their herd, they are able to get milk and put it in the market so that they are able to earn something and I believe there are many other things we can do,” added Zuma.
On health, he said, the long-awaited National Health Insurance policy would be made public soon and in preparation for the scheme, government planned to improve health care this year by appointing appropriate and qualified personnel to the right positions.
“We need qualified heads of department, chief financial officers, hospital chief executive officers, district health officers and clinic managers,” Zuma said. – Chris Bathembu, BuaNews
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