President Jacob Zuma says we have to create 500 000 jobs by year-end. As a nation of dedicated whingers, we look at that stat, sit back and say, “We can’t do it”. Actually if we can’t do it then we need to figure out how much financial pain, we the employed, are able to bear in terms of a growing personal tax burden and rampant debt.
Individuals in South Africa are already the most heavily taxed in the world, those in jobs not only pay PAYE and VAT, we carry the can for those who can’t afford or refuse to pay vehicle insurance, hospital bills, traffic fines, school fees, university loans, property rates, electricity, water, sanitation, now a new health tax … the list gets ever longer.
If the fact that our unemployment figures exceeded 40% even before this recession, that 54% of our people live in poverty (Human Sciences Research Council), that 250 000 graduates were unemployed (Stats SA, 2008), that half of our matriculants have failed two years in a row and of those that pass about 7% will not find work, doesn’t bother you — then consider this: how much more tax can you bear?
Those already paying tax are going to be taxed more. The burden of a 30% electricity tariff hike will be carried by the small percentage already paying for electricity, not the majority that use it illegally. Road traffic fine collections at present, as an example, through websites and banks rely primarily on those with credit cards to pay, as for the rest? Ag suga, as a friend used to say — go whistle for it.
But wait a minute, so far what I have written gives more fuel to the whingers, to the self-pitying honourable (who probably largely form the 80% of South Africans prepared to pay (bribe) an official to get what they want — Morality survey, Sunday Times, June 2009).
There should be only one reason why we find work for 500 000 people before the end of this year and a million by the end of next year: because the economy demands it. Because if we are to get beyond economist lies about us “doing better” than other countries through this economic crisis (with the figures in paragraph three, we are doing well?) we have to get innovation and hard work back into gear.
Cosatu is right, big bonuses and ridiculously expensive cars as part of executive packages have to go — it’s happening elsewhere in the world, why not in this land of profound inequity?
You have to be really stupid or terminally ignorant not to see how fast and how badly this economy is sliding and to realise that we will not be out of this mess early next year, as some economists now say, we will be lucky to start lifting our head above water by 2013.
Take a look at this graph for South Africa’s GDP:
Source: Dr Azar Jammine, Econometrix June 2009
Still not scary enough for you? Try this and since this graph was published a month ago, Absa revealed this week that house prices have dropped a further 3.6%.
So your tax rate is going through the ceiling and your investments are collapsing through the floor. It doesn’t take huge leaps of awareness to understand that this economy has to grow; it simply has to, if this country is to have any chance of remaining a strong investment locale for foreign and domestic investors.
We don’t have enough strong reliable underpinnings in the economy of the 21st century to have the same whining approach of the late 20th century — mining, which built this country, is now a weaker sector than agriculture and our agricultural fortunes have been collapsing for at least two decades.
We are no longer a major grain exporter, many of our beef farms are now game farms and production generally is less than impressive.
So how is the rest of the economy doing? Economic data from the SA Reserve Bank show that debt summonses soared 14.4% in February and personal bankruptcies rose after hitting 40.4% in January. Wholesale trade dipped 8.9%, retail sales plunged 4.5% — a record drop.
In early April the National Treasury announced a programme to co-ordinate its borrowing with that of the six major state-owned entities. The Treasury will borrow R70.5 billion, the SA National Road Agency R13.3 billion, electricity utility Eskom R12 billion, Transnet R6.9 billion, the Development Bank of South Africa R6 billion, Airports Company South Africa R3.6 billion and the Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority R1 billion. So we’re all in debt and there is more; the total number of liquidations recorded for the first quarter of 2009 increased by 46.7% (from 687 to 1 008) compared with the first quarter of 2008, statistics released by Statistics South Africa show (April 28).
When comparing the first quarter of 2009 with the first quarter of 2008, there were increases of 58.7% in company liquidations (from 312 to 495) and 36.8% in close corporation liquidations (from 375 to 513). Labour lawyer Celeste Allen who runs the labour law course for AstroTech says that since November last year she has done little else but retrenchments, “with some companies into their third round of retrenchments”.
Is creating 500 000 jobs a pipe dream? We should have been committed to it years ago when economic growth was booming, instead those who should have been fuelling job creation were investing in holiday homes and bigger cars and even a stable of vehicles, a car for work, a vehicle for the weekend, another for game drives …
Zuma’s vision is that the 500 000 jobs should be via an expanded public works programme, certainly our streets could be cleaner — especially filthy Durban; we have a zillion potholes that need filling on a collapsing national road infrastructure (try the road between Johannesburg and Kimberley sometime for a terrifying experience) our public hospitals and schools could be considerably cleaner, they need repairing and walls painted.
Trevor Manuel, Minister of Planning in the President’s Office, has defended plans for this large-scale job creation saying the intention was not to create permanent jobs, but an emergency measure to stand between poor families and absolute starvation. Already social grants are swallowing an ever growing part of the budget, we need to put those people to work instead of creating, as we are, those who rely on social grants.
But we need to go beyond relying on government to create jobs, we know what its track record on delivery is — we need to create jobs and if you can’t employ one more person, then ensure instead of retrenching two more that you send them for training, Keep skilling your workforce let them know you are doing this instead of retrenching them, motivate them to produce more and better, it’s the path some of the world’s greater organisations are already taking — they intend being in business for generations more to come.
Toyota, which is experiencing its worst sales and profits ever, is not shedding jobs, it is continuing to pay workers and using downtime to train workers or use them on public service projects. Public service projects as a way of seconding employees rather than laying off staff is gaining ground.
New York-based law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett offers associates a year off to work on a public service project and get paid $60 000 plus benefits — less than half their normal pay but a lot better than being retrenched. FedEx has imposed graduated pay cuts, less for front-line workers and more for managers.
And on July 18, Mandela Day, take 67 minutes off work for you and your staff and get out there to make a difference in the lives of those who are really struggling in this economy. Barack Obama has called for something similar in the US, where he has called for a greater “service” ethos — a greater idea than writing cheques to charities for tax breaks.
There is more to life than buying a new car, getting a bigger house, if you intend remaining here, if you want to still be in business by this time next year, then you are simply going to have to work harder, with more imagination and greater empathy for those around you and that applies as much for South Africans as it does for Americans, Europeans … the world is in trouble, it requires something extra from the ordinary to get us out of it.
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51 Responses to “If SA can’t create 500 000 jobs, then your job is on the line”
Well, firstly, no, his job is not on the line, because the ANC will not fire Zuma in the foreseeable future even if he’s caught snorting coke from between Helen Zille’s thighs.
Secondly, no, we are not the world’s most highly taxed country. Check the following for actual details, as opposed to fantasies.
Thirdly, the only way we can really make a major difference to unemployment is through collective action, which means that the government has to do something (or we all collectively have to do something about the government).
So apart from not understanding politics or economics, I suppose your essay meant well.
Lots of advice and blame but what about that forgotten means to prompt the “fat cats” (exclude the pubic service/politicians as they create zero jobs) to create jobs - THE CARROT.
For every job created (new) the company/person/corporate gets a heafty and permanent tax deduction, link this to tax exemptions based on the size of the workers (not executives)payrole - ie the higher the pay the higher the tax deduction + allow companies who train new workers to be exempt from the minmium wage laws until the training is over.
The above if implimented with openess and political honesty without SACP/Leftest assetive protest will stun everyone on how many jobs are created.
Guess that is why these measures will not be made law - the private sector will create the jobs and the radical Left just simply cannot allow this
Our problems have nothing to do with Macro Economic policy and interest rates or inflation targeting.
We have no Micro Economic policy, no Industrial plan.
We need to target and promote certain industries (like the Nats did with cars).
And we have to seriously look at what puts off investors - communist talk of redistribution is a big disincentive.
The truth is that the more rich you have the less poor. Put off the rich with SACP/Cosatu type rhetoric and you do not attract more investors or job creators.
And we have to face the fact that until Zimbawe gives back what was stolen from investors post independence in 1980, no-one will believe we are safe for private investment, only government to government investment - which will be colonisation.
You seem to be labouring under a misapprehension. The purpose of an economy is not employment, it is PRODUCTION. Jobs are just a happy side-effect. To lose sight of this fact is to forget that wealth must be created before it can be distributed.
The proposed public works programme is short-term thinking of the worst kind, that will doom millions of people to poverty. The government proposes to take money out of the hands of potential entrepreneurs and waste it on dead-end jobs that even Trevor Manuel admits will only be temporary.
Having given the people their fish today, the government will find that they’ve bankrupted the fishermen, so now they have more mouths to feed and nothing to feed them with.
Why is it that they seem to think that the poor of today are more worthy of help or compassion than the poor of tomorrow? It is only through sustained economic growth that we can hope to eradicate poverty, and a government that fails to recognise this and act accordingly is guilty of the most grievous crimes against its people.
Jobs for the sake of jobs are worse than useless. If we save one family from poverty today at the expense of condemning two to poverty tomorrow, have we acted morally?
Policies encouraging entrepreneurship and making the country more attractive to foreign investors are far worthier. Let’s show some patience, start with education, and let the country heal itself!
I agree with your alarmist manner with this post. The economy, whether we think it is in a good or bad state, is the primary influence on the wellbeing of all people. Assuming the struggle removes (removed) all other barriers, the economic barriers still remain and it is only a vibrant economy that will generate the cash to alleviate poverty and create jobs. Whether you take a socialist or capitalist view, the point of your post is that everyone needs to participate and do whatever they possibly can, in their individual capacities, to uplift the economy - or else.
South Africa’s ecomony exists in a global context and the workforce needs to become competitive in a global landscape - waiting for the government to fix things will only lead to disaster (even if they are competent, it will take too long). The new struggle is economic and it needs attention
The problem with us, is the focus on FDI to achieve viable Economy! That is totally wrong,lets invest more on trying to feed at least 50 Million of the people in the country! Let the attention be to produce enough to put something on Thabo’s plate in Soweto, then ensure at least Dick in Sandton has enough to spend! Currently we are generating enough to take care of ourselves yet drainage like you said High bonuses,expensive cars and worst of all corruption!
Govt parastatals that are draining money shape them or relinquish them to the private sector!
Investment should be made on Agriculture,Manufacturing,and Financial sectors!Thabo’s Uncle will have employement thus keeping the necessary financial circulation! FDI should NOT be the “only” solution to our problem!
Expanded Public Works Programme has the same principles but relies on FDI for economic sustainability! Wrong premise on my view!
The problem with blogging - simplistic interpretation creates a distortion of basic economics. The national priority is keeping the ANC in power, and associated privelege for a minority. Until that mindset changes, skills and capital will continue to drift away. Attracting foreign direct investment will never reach anything like its true potential. There are just to many other low risk, low wage, low red tape environments for production orientated industries to clamour on board. A ‘decent’ low blow is the name of the game when you have a low skill workforce, overtly protected with first world employment legislation. How low can you go? Its all indecent, or is that descent?
And here we have a simple concept like Mr Recycle, which creates jobs for those that have lost their jobs, but have bakkies, to collect Recyclable Materials from homes, businesses and entertainment venues, and deliver these mixed materials to job creation centres in disadvantaged areas, where the materials will be sorted and sold to fund the sorting jobs.
Not only is the government busy passing a law which will require that any sorting facility sorting more than 1 ton a day requires a R50 000 permit, but the City of Cape Town’s waste department is working on one of its own, which will remove the choice of the Ratepayer to choose their service provider.
Why do we bother trying to create jobs, when all the government or City seems to do is to want money from us before we even start?
Have you tried borrowing venture capital recently?
Even the banks are making things as difficult as possible to create jobs for the Commercially Unemployable in Our Fantastic Country.
Hunger, boredom and frustration lead to Crime, which is a real problem for the rest of us who don’t qualify for grants, and take pride in our work.
Siphiwo as I recall Lenin and Stalin failed totally - I can give you the figures if you want.
What is required is a new vision and a new paradigm. This is the post industrial phase, when we realise that the land is sacred because it provides food, the rivers are utterly sacred because they provide water and we are idiots because we are intent on destroying both!
We are talking same old stuff and nothing new and these are new times with challenges that require a new approach. CLeaning up our act is firt in line - not just our streets but our water sources and our sewerage farms - currently we deliver poison to our rural areas via polluted rivers and make our food sources deadly poison.
Looking for new ways of living - ask your children how to live better, how do we use less that is not reuseable, how do we destroy less? How do we bring back harmony? The past 150 years have destroyed the heart of humanity and the human race is on the brink of destruction. What can we do to change this?
Thanks for an excellent column. Sadly, while growth looks like the only solution, we can no longer operate in a paradigm of ‘growth’ to sustain a population with increasing troubles. There is another option, one no one seriously discusses. That is decreasing population sizes. While economic growth still seems like a choice, or an option, we will probably throw everthing we can to achieve it. I doubt we will. Finance has changed fundamentally, and we live in a finite world with finite resources. It is time for human beings with their infinite wants and infinite desires to realise this. It’s fine if we don’t though. Nature will impress this upon us; it already is. We have the choice to change or have change foisted upon us. I’m inclined to believe we are not smart or disciplined enough for the former, but I’d feel encouraged if I was to be proved wrong.
Thanks again for a great article here.
@ The Creator - SA is very highly taxed. What your hyperlink fails to identify is that even though someone may pay 33% tax, they still need to pay extra for security because crime is through the roof; pay extra for private medical aid because state hospitals are in a mess; and for the slightly more fortunate, pay for private schools because the state schooling system is also in a mess. All of these should really come of out your 33% without having to shell out to make “additional” provisions because your tax dollars don’t provide adequately. Add that all up and I think you’ll find that South Africa is indeed one of the highest taxed societies in the world. I thought Charlene was quite clear on that in her second paragraph….
@ Neil,
Well said, but probably won’t be well received!
Charlene,
It works the other way round.
When the economy grows FIRST, then the workforce expands to fill the gap.
You can’t ‘create’ (make believe) jobs and then hope the ‘real’ economy expands to fill them!
It is the equivalent of Keynesian economics… Print make believe money and ‘pump’ the economy, hoping the economy will then grow and give the newly created fake money some real value.
It does not work.
It has not worked anywhere, ever, yet the idea refuses to be consigned to the dustbin of history, because like make believe job creation, capital savings are ransacked to effect short term relief.
Real GDP is what counts, whether such is produced through 10% employment or 100% employment.
When GDP plummets, as your graphs indicate, everyone suffers, employed or not.
Why does GDP plummet?…
Because real capital gets ‘redirected’ making growth dependent upon credit which then dries up…
Why does credit dry up?…
Because governments artificially regulate the price below market value (it’s called interest rate setting, AKA ‘monetary policy’) to serve our economic demigods , John Maynard Keynes and ’stimulating the economy’.
All this ‘regulating’ achieves is to create instability and unnecessary boom/bust cycles; and now we’re bust!
@Siphiwo2
What does the clever ANC know that the former soviet politburo didn’t?
Presumably the mess they made of the USSR was because they just didn’t do communism ‘right’ and we will?
The only way to create 500000 sustainable jobs under current BEE laws is to have a large number of sustainable majority black-owned business start up / grow & prosper.
Even if each one manages to employ 100 people (1 every 3 days…) we need 5000 such businesses.
Which need many more customers willing to part with their cash to fund these workers
“The truth is that the more rich you have the less poor.”
clearly you haven’t been to latin america. they have large classes of rich, even more poor but almost no middle class. [their gini coefficients are as skewed as south africa’s btw, for many of the same reasons: brazil and colombia in particular are examples in how you can have apartheid without having actual national party-style apartheid laws.]
Does this mean that we can expect Tokyo Sexwale, Patrice Motsepe, Dikgang Moseneke and the rest of the black elite minority who attained multi-billionaire status in South Africa since 1994 to donate just one Billion rand each of their multi-billion Rand fortunes to this effort?
Or are you talking about the rapidly dwindling pool of white taxpayers who actually pay the majority of the taxes in this country having to carry the can even heavier and further because that raises the question of how to keep getting more out of a pie that keeps getting smaller, or if you will, squeezing blood out of a rock - a basic economic concept the ANC doesn’t seem to have quite grasped yet.
At this point, the vast bulk of the nation’s wealth lies in the hands of a black minority elite, and with the mass emmigration of most of the country’s skilled white human resources, the disenfranchisement and marginalisation of the rest of the white population, a shrinking economy, a collapsing infrastructure and no expertise to repair or maintain it one wonders just how much the ANC kleptocracy thinks it can milk out of the country for their personal use before the whole lot implodes?
Well done Charlene for being one of the first to identify what I believe will be the MAJOR issue of the next few years in South Africa. The government is going to run out of tax revenue in the near future. They will put up the tax rate. The taxpayers will revolt. Chaos will ensue.
The solution, of course, is to do less, not more. Less labour regulation, less exchange control, less government (ha ha), less intervention, less stupidity, less tax, less crime, less corruption.
Of course, that’s not going to happen, so chaos probably will.
The Chinese are going for both growth and reducing population size.
Which is why they won’t give up Tibet - their frontier against India where population and poverty are getting to a Malthusian crisis. The Chinese are expecting starving hordes to try and cross the Himalayas and Tibet is their frontline.
Just emigrate to cloud 9. Don’t throw the stompie out the window into a bushfire zone.
What a whine Charlene. Those who have sufficient income to complain about tax should be grateful that the services provided by these help others. My magtig, if you want a tax deduction and don’t like wehere your tax money is going, donate the top end most heavily nailed by tax to the salvation Army.
The only way to create employment is through hard work and sacrifice by people who are prepared to do it.
I see no evidence of this in SA where making a quick buck by any means has taken over the persona of its society. Civil disobedience an inherited trait from the post 16th June generation has infected the country as a whole. As a result we have a lack of morality in the highest offices in the country that permeates through every system on the way down. Here I am not only referring to greedy politicians, gov officials and the like, but also the masters of deviousness and deception, corporate leaders that are even more dangerous.
To create work the country must first take stock of itself before unleashing programmes that are always doomed for failure.
* Mundundu - Actually I lived and worked for some years in Argentina and as a journalist covered Latin America - which helps me realise that you have never lived there. I am mystified as to how a knowledge of Latin America helps one understand one’s own country in Africa? But then again, if you had lived in Latin America, you would know that it doesn’t.
Typical of the economic illiteracy of journalists. South Africans are certainly not the most taxed people in the world. Your lack of a reference there suggests how you just made that “fact” up. And the graph shows gdp growth, not gdp, until 2009, showing the current recession–nothing more–and certainly not the hysterical scenario you paint
From Wikipedia: “A job is a regular activity performed in exchange for payment, especially as one’s occupation. A person usually begins a job by becoming an employee, volunteering, or starting a business. The duration of a job may range from an hour (in the case of odd jobs) to a lifetime (in the case of some judges). If a person is trained for a certain type of job, they may have a profession. The series of jobs a person holds in their life is their career.”
No one can create jobs: “A job is a regular activity”
As soon as people have a job, they stop working….ie: no more activity. This will lead to job destruction.
This suggests that the core problem lies with the people who do have a job but do not work to capacity and therefore create job losses.
The unemployed are innocent in this. They are just a by-product of the people in jobs who do not work to capacity.
The Asian economies seem to confirm this theory.
Charlene, I would like to read something about comparing developments in South Africa with your Latin American experience. I often wonder if we’re going through what many countries there have been through.
@creator, @Chris Claasens - I think careful consideration may expose your ignorance rather than Charlene’s. Consideration of the level of taxation must include two things 1)What taxes levies and costs exist besides the base rate. For example, the US may look ‘cheap’ but it has, besides the federal tax listed, State taxes (and various forms of VAT in different states), City taxes, and of course costs on governmental services (more taxes really - like vehicle licences). It’s difficult to quantify precisely, but SA does have high secondary taxes too. 2)Then there is return on taxes. Very obviously not only do say Swedes not have to pay effectively twice for healthcare or security, they also have substantial business advantages because their society is healthy and secure. Additionally insurance rates are much lower. On a return on tax calculation middle-class SA earners really are among the worst off in the world, and are in a poor position to shoulder any additional burden. Mind you, @creator, I do agree with your comment about Zuma.
There’s a lot of fixing that could be done quite quickly. Break the banking cartels. We could do away with 90% of the petty meaningless financial beaurocracy. I can spend as much as I like on a credit card on Amazon, but I can’t get Standard Bank to give me a $50 cheque to pay to a Writer’s Union which has no credit card facility. Why I might be buying drugs or laundering $50!
Charlene why do you think the Latin American scenario is so unlike the one here? Different political history? Different resource base? Different kind of people?
Actually Charlene: it’s 400 000 graduates who are unemployed.
Secondly, you fail to mention that poverty (and unemployment) is highly racialised. Unemployment amongst blacks is at 24% whilst amongst whites it is at 3%. Over 91% of new recruits are whites (that is both those qualified in technical and non-technical disciplines). Despite their education, balck South Africans are unable to find jobs. The HSRC also released a report saying that white women have benefited the most from Affirmative Action. So, Biko, Mandela, (Govan) Mbeki, Sobukwe and many others fought, were tortured: only to have the very people who endorsed and benefited from apartheid hijack the fruits of their blood, sweat and hard work. That’s the ugly truth about this god-damned country, aint it?
You cant create jobs when you have unions running the show, governments imposing AA and BEE and crime rates through the roof. You cant expect a country to grow when your skilled professionals have fled crime and ridiculous employment equity laws. You cant expect a country to grow when opening a business is a minefield if you are white.
The global financial crisis was nothing more than a catalyst which will expose the fundamental weaknesses of the South African economy.
you could have worded your tax rate statements differently. the top rate starts at a much lower amount than in other countries, true. also, unlike in most countries with VAT, food and clothing are generally not vat-exempt.
re: latin america.
i’ve emailed you about why i haven’t been to argentina. however, i’ve lived in both brazil and venezuela, as well as in various parts of the caribbean. try again.
[here’s a hint: argentina’s demographics are so different to the rest of latin america’s that they didn’t need visas to go the united states until 2002. those very reasons are among the same as to why i’ve not been there. something to think about.]
also, your ideas of ‘rich’ ‘middle class’ and ‘poor’ are probably much different than mine.
Dear Siphiwo
As I presume you are being serious about let’s do it together the Lenin/ Stalin/ Marx way, let’s quote the USSR workers mantra: ‘We pretend to work….and they pretend to pay us”. Look forward to your pretend money in a pretend economy.
Creating 500′000 jobs before the end of the year is 100% possible depending on the focus. If the focus is on rural development that is possible. Some People can work on the rehabilitation of their environments for food packages, some can be employed as domestic servants, some can be trained in basic skills development through coopratives and thereafter form partnerships for initiating microprojects, all that I have mentioned here is job creation strategies. President Zuma will have to learn from success stories from his colleaques in the African Continent; job creation for 500,000 people before the end of 2009 is 100% possible. Again President will have to collaborate with the recruiting companies and donor funding organizations ie companies that recruit domestic servants and World Food Programme for food packages.
@Phillipa the ugly truth is the fellows you named seemed to have struggled so they or their children and cronies could become obscenely rich, principally through extortion (AKA BEE) and looting of state assets supposedly the property of the entire nation.
Please compare apples with apples, and use stats with some credibility. For instance is there a real difference in employment of black and white graduates from the same school with similar marks? (ans. no, unless marks are bad) or same university, same degree, same results (ans. yes. Black graduates in some disciplines are more employable, white ones frequently emigrate). The fault lies with the appalling quality of educaton available to the majority of black students - something that has actually got worse since 1994. White women benefited most why? - because they have a far better skills and language base, and are less threatening. Realistically demographic representation would forex require a lot of fine Indian academics out - not very bright. As for the stats - reality is closer 50% unemployed. And the white kid figure is heavily skewed by degree choice/school results, language and migration - if it was any more accurate than the other figure to start with. The difference - which needs WORK (but is not proof of racial discrimination) is largely down to old Bantu education and unis. That’s really the fault of your heroes, who failed to reform them. Zimbabwe did it with less and in less time. We need to employ retired white teachers and retrain or fire.
* Nick - My first problem with trying to use Latin America as a model for issues in South Africa is that in the same way that I would think it would be grossly inacurrate to postulate an “African model”. There is no such thing, there are very many states in Africa and South America and the reasons for development or underdevelopment in each are different. Could we lump together South Africa and Somalia as examples for failed economic policies? Of course we could not. Nor could we say that experience in Brazil a former Portuguese colony, equates with that in Bolivia (Spanish) and too Ecuador. So many things are different, climate, people, political history, attitudes, religion (a big factor there, negligible to nothing here), etc… etc..
@Francisca - that sounds like having a pot of money to pay to people and trying to find something for them to do to earn it. It is socialist government handouts - not real jobs based on real demand.
That is really interesting. The influence of religion on a people. I think there is some significant impact on the white population here. Perhaps a way to fight crime and corruption is to evangelise the black elite? The other thing you mention is attitudes. I know in South Korea, where I lived for 4 years, there is a culture of honesty and honor. Stealing is absolutely verboten, and if you are found guilty of corruption you commit suicide (as the ex-president there recently did). I think the government has to get the media, churches, schools etc. on the ‘culture of honor’ bandwagon. I think sport is also a way that we can feel proud of who we are. Not being negative but realistically speaking South Africans have a lot to be ashamed of. I think through achievements and success we can turn that around, but everything starts with attitude. The closest ally to attitude is probably a new belief system. I’m not a Christian but if Christianity helps de-criminalise the country why not? It seems to me if you have diverse cultures the best way to unify them is through beliefs.
You never know, a common enemy (like a lethal swine flu pandemic) could also remind us where our priorities should lie. Seems South Africa is sitting prettier than most countries both economically and in the pandemic stakes. Whether that is really or true or will continue to be is another story.
@Craig- that’s exactly why the gap between the rich and poor needs to be narrowed. THAT’S why more blacks need to have businesses. So that they can absord the massive number of unemployed people because current employement trends indicate a racial bias. Whites are being employed in droves while blacks, even those who are more competent than some whites are left out in the cold; poor, unemployed and starving to death.
@Dave, more and more black kids are going to better schools and doing well there, even UCT Vice-Chancellor, Max Price said so. The HSRC and other research aithorities have also proven. What do you mean when you say that white women are “less threatening”. Are you expressing some kind of swaartgevaar. Well, that explains your attitude. In fact it offeres a lot of insight; blacks are considered as being “threatening”. You have answered your own question and mine.
@ Charlene: if you read again you will SEE that my SOURCE is the HSRC!
@Phillipa, that’s my point - at a good model C school black kids do as well as white kids. They emerge with good numeracy, language and social contacts and interaction skills. These children normally do well and suffer relatively little disadvantage in the middle rank if any, and some advantage with uptake for tertiary education at the top - but they still make up a very small - ?10% of the matriculants evey year. That’s what every child, regardless of colour, deserves. It’s not racial discrimination holding them back (there is some, agreed) it’s bad schooling. Fix the schooling and I believe 90% of the racial disparity will evaporate. (and yes, I am involved and have put my money where my mouth is). What I mean by ‘threatening’ is that employers from the same culture find women less indimidating and easier to fit into an organisation. Generally, women are less aggressive (exceptions, obviously), and are more capable of dealing with conflict and the insecurity posed by their promotion in a non-confrontational way. Therefore they are not threatening. It’s a statement of fact, not swartgevaar. It sadly has an effect on the type of AA black canditates chosen too.
As an amusing aside my work area is about 80% female dominated… and the excuses from them as to why this is just fine… is like listening to MCPs from 1970 explaining why women can’t do the job. No effect on me, but it shows similarity of dominant groups.
wow, phillipa says something that is almost correct. i’m impressed.
to, wit: blacks need to have more businesses.
this is true. black people need to have more businesses. having a business tends to mean taking the initiative to do it yourself instead of waiting for someone to hire you.
in the case of graduates, it means that you should be networking while a student — both among students and lecturers during term, and among shopkeepers and other entrepreneurs both inside and outside term.
i’m actually part of an internet community that compares and contrasts these very things [parallels between africa and latin america].
the short version is the most similarities in latin america to the situation in southern africa in general and the SADC in particular are in the few countries where the native populations are a plurality or the majority of the population. note that i said “native” and not “black”.
a closer look into peruvian, ecuadorian, paraguayan and certainly bolivian politics shows that, for lack of a better term, the natives are getting restless about their lack of representation when it comes to receiving income from natural resources. the “land” argument on this side of the pond turns into “oil and gas revenues” on that side of the pond. while toledo had been too far removed from facts on the ground for too long to be particularly effective [a peruvian mbeki?], morales sounds positively mugabe-esque in a lot of his saber-rattling. in fact, you actually hear mugabe’s name amongst the [white] cattle ranchers in eastern bolivia, where most of the natural gas lives.
in these countries [the ones with native majorities] the role of religion is not as much of an issue as it is in other countries [even though lugo was a priest before becoming president of paraguay], in large part because christianity was integrated into and not a replacement for the native religions [sound familiar?].
@Phillipa I’m faintly curious about where you get these diktats from. They seem to be preconcieved and not supported by any rational thought. Why do you assume that more black businesses would narrow the _wage_ gap? (Something I am very much in favour of, but I suspect I differ on how this should be done.) I’ve spoken with a number of black domestic workers trying to get their kids into school, and over and over I’ve been told that exploitation is in fact the inverse of what you suggest. I’m not trying to pretend any of these people are saints or that exploitation isn’t rife. I know it is not politically correct, but poor black women rate black employers and Chinese, followed by Indians and then poor whites as worst, then rich whites - with first choice being middle class whites. And men usually pay better than women and expect less hours. My Bruv was involved in union organising years back, and black building contractors were some of the worst exploiters of black employees. We need more business, yes. We need ethical employers (not by race!) and motivated skilled maths and languages (I mean English. You are going have a hissy again, but it’s that or Mandarin) potential employees. We need grow the pie, which will stop people being frightened of losing their piece, and create loads of opportunity. Demand needs to exceed supply. There is no real demand for unskilled labour, or B.SocSci(Limpopo).
Why don’t the Government start a “kibuts” like in Israel where people are paid with a meal and place to sleep for working during the day in farming , planting vegetables etc.
instead of laying around in towns.
Every town could have a “kibuts” for the jobless or homeless.
good idea Robert. If you read guys like James Kunstler, they say it’s inevitable. The industry of the future will be agriculture, farming. Hard to believe, but we are already struggling to feed ourselves (or to afford food grown by others). http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13944900
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Charlene Smith is a multi-award-winning journalist, author and media consultant. Her latest book is "Committed to Me." She writes for newspapers and magazines in South Africa and internationally and has had 13 books published, one of which was shortlisted for an Alan Paton award.
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She has worked as a broadcast journalist and radio-station manager. Smith's areas of expertise are politics, economics, violence, women's and children's issues and HIV and Aids. She is frequently invited to address conferences around the world. www.charlenesmith.net
Yest (Saturday) my purse was stolen @ Rome Termini shortly before I boarded a train for Salerno, Italy. I have no money + 5 biscuits until my Masterca...
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Well, firstly, no, his job is not on the line, because the ANC will not fire Zuma in the foreseeable future even if he’s caught snorting coke from between Helen Zille’s thighs.
Secondly, no, we are not the world’s most highly taxed country. Check the following for actual details, as opposed to fantasies.
http://www.worldwide-tax.com/index.asp#partthree
Thirdly, the only way we can really make a major difference to unemployment is through collective action, which means that the government has to do something (or we all collectively have to do something about the government).
So apart from not understanding politics or economics, I suppose your essay meant well.
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