Govt: Unemployment to halve

Cape Town - South Africa will meet a 2014 target to halve unemployment, a cabinet minister said on Saturday, despite the prospect of rising job losses in the global financial crisis.

Unemployment has remained stubbornly high in Africa's biggest economy and fears are mounting the official jobless rate could rise above the current 21.9% recorded at the end of 2008.

"It's going to take a lot of work, it needs a lot of dedication and energy but I think its achievable by 2014, I'm confident," Public Works Minister Geoff Doidge told Reuters in an interview.

Slumping global demand has placed thousands of South African jobs at risk in the key labour-intensive mining, manufacturing and automobile sectors, potentially swelling the ranks of about 3.9m who are unemployed.

Doidge was speaking after the launch of government's expanded public works programme, the second phase of which aims at creating 4.5m jobs over the next five years.

"It's the most significant, the most targeted programme because its uniqueness is that it cuts across all government departments," said Doidge.

"It's not a pick and shovel job only, it involves health workers, it involves community safety..."

Reaching those goals may be difficult given current financial conditions.

A global economic slowdown and weak household demand have knocked the economy, resulting in its first contraction in a decade in the fourth quarter of 2008 and expectations of recession.

Manufacturers have been particularly hard hit, while mining output has fallen. Household spending is also under pressure.

The first phase of government's flagship job creation programme exceeded its target by 300 000, providing 1.3m opportunities between 2004 and 2009, mainly in infrastructure projects such as road building, said Doidge.

Job creation was a central pillar in the ruling African National Congress election campaign, although critics say party power struggles and corruption scandals have overshadowed crucial issues such as unemployment, crime and poverty.

Asked if Saturday's launch was politically opportunistic before a general election on April 22, Doidge said:

"If somebody doesn't like us doing it before the election that's tough. I am saying there are people that don't know what they are going to eat tonight. There are children going hungry and I cannot allow a situation where we dilly-dally until whenever," Doidge said.

- Reuters