Dear Editor
South Africa’s jobs crisis demands immediate reform and only real action can turn opportunity into work for millions. Statistics South Africa’s latest Quarterly Employment Survey shows that over the past year, the formal sector has shed 229 000 jobs – 19 000 every month and 630 every single day.
Of these losses, 174 000 were part-time, while another 55 000 were full-time. This tells its own story: employers are avoiding full-time hires because labour laws make it too risky and too inflexible. Instead of freeing up the labour market, the ANC keeps clamping it down with red tape and punitive regulation.
Community services alone lost 53 000 jobs, trade 10 000, manufacturing 9 000 and construction 7 000. Even small gains in mining and electricity cannot paper over the collapse in other sectors.
South Africa cannot afford to stumble along this path. That is why the DA has tabled a six-point plan to turbocharge growth and open the doors to work.
Central to this plan is fixing labour laws so that hiring becomes easier, not harder; scrapping race-based legislation like BEE and the Employment Equity Act which strangle small businesses; and replacing them with a system that empowers people on the basis of need and merit.
The ANC wants more talk shops. The DA is pushing for action – in Cabinet, in Parliament, and across every sphere of government.
Every day that reforms are delayed, more South Africans join the unemployment line. The choice is stark: either keep the ANC’s broken system that kills jobs, or back the DA’s plan to deliver growth, opportunity and full-time work for millions.
Only the DA has the plan. Only real reform can end this jobs bloodbath.
Regards
Michael Bagraim MP
DA Spokesperson on Employment & Labour