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Johannesburg - While South Africa has experienced positive economic growth since the advent of democracy, this has
not translated into quality employment or even sufficient job creation, the National Labour and Economic Development Institute (Naledi) says in a document released on Tuesday.
Titled "The State of Cosatu", the document argues that the country's economic growth has benefited capital, while the working class has become "increasingly impoverished and fragmented".
Naledi compiled the document for discussion at the country's biggest trade union federation Cosatu's congress next week.
The precariousness of the current economic growth trajectory due to volatility in markets is made more precarious by the high levels of inequality in South Africa, it adds.
It points out that the government's Ten Year Review warns that unless poverty and inequality are urgently addressed the "negatives will overpower the positives".
Government, it adds, has recognised this problem in the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (Asgisa).
But the document says that while there are significant disputes on whether the planned interventions are appropriate, designed carefully and will ultimately lead to poverty eradication in South Africa, there is a growing recognition that government needs to play a significant role in restructuring the economy and in ensuring that redistribution is sustainable and efficient.
There is also growing recognition that market solutions are inadequate to deal with poverty.