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Going for broke

SOMETIMES I get the sense that we are living in the Twilight Zone.

One day I will read a news headline where the president of the country is talking about South Africa "joining Bric" - whatever that means - or we will have a politician talking about how small business is the future of job creation in South Africa.
 
The next thing, I will be reading a story about proposed new legislation which says that if I own a small business and create a job, I need to report it to a government agency which will then advertise it. If I fail to do so, I face a jail sentence or a fine which could be as much as 10% of my annual turnover.
 
On top of that, in the worst-case scenario, I am probably not going to be allowed to hire people on a temporary basis.
 
It is a noble suggestion that government can tackle unemployment by toughening up on legislation in the labour broking market - but can we try to understand the logistics of this?
 
Marc Ashton Enterprises is a promising small IT firm with a single employee. As the business develops, it recognises the need for an admin assistant to answer phones and do filing. The budget allows for a salary of R3 000 a month for this person.
 
I must then go to a state-controlled body and register this application with them. Real unemployment in South Africa sits at around 35% on a good day.

If we have a population of 50 million people and 60% of those fall into the "job seeking" category, that means my little admin assistant position could potentially be shopped around to 15 million people - but let's be realistic and say it goes to 1% of that.

Out of date and out of jobs

 
This means 15 000 applicants for my position. Remind me again how I am supposed to wade through these and vet a potential candidate? After all, I do have a business to run at the same time.
 
We can complain as much as we want about labour brokers, but they are placing candidates into jobs. Can the same be said of trade unions?
 
It might be trite, but I have just been on Cosatu's website and clicked on the "vacancies" button. It comes up with a message: "The page you are looking for cannot be found." The site is also sorely out of date, with the last proposal being listed from 2001!
 
Similarly, I was on the National Union of Metal Workers (Numsa) web page. These guys are the second-biggest trade union in South Africa and they don't appear to have an option for vacancies on their site. When you read about their "achievements", the words "job creation" don't feature.
 
I also checked the new Numsa constitution, and it doesn't feature there either.  
 
Yet these are the same unions throwing mud at the likes of Kelly and Adcorp, which employ 1 185 and 2 390 people respectively. There doesn't seem to be a problem with their websites in terms of potential vacancies.
 
Organisations like Kelly and Adcorp - whose livelihoods depend on job creation - have more and more regulations dumped on them each year. These come in the form of annual, sustainability and employment equity reports or legislation like the Access to Information Act.
 
In contrast, the two largest organisations charged with protecting organised labour don't even have to publish an annual report on their website - despite representing millions of workers and claiming subscription fees from them each year. Do as we say but not as we do?
 
Admittedly, we have been through a tough recession but the scorecard reads that we have not added a single job since 1994, from which time organised labour has been the cornerstone of economic policy. This is despite the emergence of a genuine black middle class, the "equalising" effect of black economic empowerment and inflows of billions of rands in foreign investment.
 
It is populist to say that organised labour is working for the benefit of those who are employed. But the alliance partners are going to need to start facing up to the cold, hard truth that they are fighting for the wrong thing and cooking the goose that lays the golden eggs.

- Fin24
 
 

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