Zuma: Economic control must be changed

Johannesburg -  SA has to build an inclusive economy which creates jobs, but more importantly, an economy that reflects the demographics of the country," said President Jacob Zuma at the inaugural Presidential Jobs and Skills Indaba in Boksburg.

"Working with business, labour and the community sector, we have to change the ownership, control and management of the economy," he said.

"The ownership of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange has changed only slightly since the dawn of freedom. But we welcome the fact that over R600bn in black economic empowerment transactions have been recorded since 1995."

The percentage of Black people and women in senior management has increased from less than 10% in the 1990s to over 40% today.

Zuma regards this as a trend is in the right direction.

"However, we need faster change. And we need meaningful change," he said.

"To further advance Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment and affirmative action policies, we have amended the Broad-Based Economic Empowerment Act and the Employment Equity Act."

These should assist the country to diversify the ownership, control and management of the economy and open more opportunities for black people, women, the youth and persons with disability, Zuma said.

"We meet with business and labour at NEDLAC to discuss these matters and will continue to do so, so that we move together in this transformation programme," he said.

Income inequality

Zuma wants income inequality to be addressed as well.

"For historical reasons, income distribution and growth is still racially skewed despite the progress made since 1994 to improve the standard of living of all, especially the poor and the working class. This indicates that the apartheid legacy is still looming large," said Zuma.

"Census 2011 revealed that the income of the average white household remains six times that of the average African household."

He wants young people to start thinking about their contribution to growing an inclusive economy, and to moving the country forward. He said they cannot leave this responsibility to government and the private sector alone.

Youth employment

Youth development is taken seriously in SA, which is why the National Youth Development Agency, (NYDA), reports directly to his office, he said.

"This is not surprising, since South Africa is a youthful country, a country in which over 50% of our population is under the age of 39," said Zuma.

Census 2011 revealed that just over a third of the population is under the age of 15.

"This means our country has a great future, especially if we invest correctly in youth development," said Zuma.

In April last year the Youth Employment Accord was signed in Soweto, by youth leaders, business, labour, government and the community sector. This was a collective resolve to work together to promote youth development in SA.

The Presidential Youth Indaba was convened at Zuma's request to share the progress made in implementing the accord.

"We are already starting to see the fruits of our collective efforts. In the nine months since the adoption of the Youth Employment Accord, youth employment grew strongly," said Zuma.

"In fact, the Indaba heard on Friday that 420 000 new jobs have been created, mainly in construction linked to our National Infrastructure Plan, the trade sector, government programmes, business services, transport and communication."

Gauteng accounted for about half of the new youth jobs, with two hundred and ten thousand new jobs registered in the province. Gauteng has also spent about R120m in youth enterprises.

"When we tell the good story of the achievements scored in the past 20 years, we also salute the South African youth as they contributed immensely to the struggle for liberation," said Zuma.

"Thousands of young people took on the apartheid state fearlessly and fought to bring about the free, just, equal, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa that we live in today."

He said the NYDA continues to run the National Senior Certificate Second Chance Matric Rewrite Programme to afford young people, who have failed matric, a second chance to obtain their National Senior Certificate.

To date, more than eight thousand young people have been assisted to rewrite their matric. 

National Development Plan

"From this year, the policies of government will be guided by the NDP, as soon as we emerge from the elections and start a new government," said Zuma.

"We know that the formal economy will not be able to grow fast enough to create the numbers of jobs we need, due to the global economic slowdown. To alleviate unemployment further, government established the Expanded Public Works Programme in 2004."