Johannesburg - The government's promise to create 500 000 employment opportunities is faltering, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Monday.
"Much more needs to be done to make sure we achieve and
preferably surpass this target," he said in a speech prepared for delivery at the Nedlac Labour Sector School.
"The fact that 73% of those currently unemployed are under 35, and the recent entry of over a million school leavers without any matric or other qualifications and virtually no possibility of a proper job, make it absolutely imperative that we take them off the streets and give them opportunities to work and
train."
Although there are reports that the country is coming out of a
recession, workers are yet to see evidence of this, he told
delegates at the National Economic Development and Labour Council(Nedlac).
South Africa came out of a recession during the third quarter of 2009 according to Statistics SA.
"On the contrary, they are still stuck in a catastrophic
recession, marked by rising unemployment, poverty and inequality.
"If there is any growth, it is certainly jobless growth."
Last year President Jacob Zuma pledged the creation of half a
million jobs through the year.
But there were nearly a million retrenchments in the first
quarter of 2009, and when the final figures are released, this
could be over one million, Vavi said.
"When you take into account that an average of five people
depend on the wages brought home by one worker that means that five million South Africans were plunged into poverty in the course of last year."
He said unemployment increased from 23.6% of the labour
force in the second quarter, to 24.5% in the third quarter
of 2009.
The expanded definition of unemployment, which includes those
who have given up looking for work, climbed from 32.5% to
34.4% in the same period.
"This means that a staggering 4.702 million South Africans are
now without work, way above the levels in any comparable country."
The union body estimated that for the first three quarters of
2009, at least R17bn worth of income per year was lost by
716 000 workers who lost their jobs.
This shrank the tax base and put a greater burden on social
spending and meant the government had to support more families with grants.
"The capitalists now say that the effects of the global crisis
on South Africa have been muted.
"They may have been muted for the capitalist class, whose
profits have been rising more than the economy throughout the
lifespan of our democracy. But for the workers it is a different
story."
- Sapa