South Africa is a job-starved economic wasteland. Individuals hunting for jobs cannot find them, and individuals with jobs are losing them. Such is the dismal state of the economy, we were reminded on Tuesday.
The latest (un)employment figures released by Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) should have jolted the President off his cash-stuffed sofa. Between April and June, the official jobless rate rose to 33.6%, from 32.7% in Q1. The numbers are especially gloomy for youngsters, among whom one in two are jobless.
Reaction was swift. From the opposition benches, ActionSA demanded the axing of ministers. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) deemed the gloomy statistics an “indictment” of the current policy direction. Among trade unions, the Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) said it was time to declare a state of emergency. Within the governing coalition, the Democratic Alliance (DA) grumbled about the slow pace of reform.
The common thread is that the current approach has fallen far short, and something needs to be done. “This is not a call for another programme or another commitment,” said Tsakani Shiviti, secretary-general of the African National Congress Youth League (ANYCL). “It is a call for the state to treat youth unemployment with the urgency and seriousness that its scale demands.”
A state of emergency can unlock a range of decisive measures. With civil liberties and rights suspended, the national government can introduce temporary regulations to deal with the unemployment crisis that would not otherwise have been possible. For instance, it could impose production quotas, seize the means of production, or launch massive public infrastructure programmes. These steps might create jobs in the short term, but they will leave the economy worse off over the long term.
This is a dangerous game. Aside from the economic impracticality of such measures, they set a discomfiting precedent for potential emergency creep. The curtailment of civil liberties, as experiences at home and beyond have taught us, is a bad idea.
South Africans do not need the national government to declare a state of emergency to tackle the unemployment crisis. What we need are the right conditions for businesses to thrive and create jobs. This is not necessarily a call for the overhaul of labour laws, but something simple: efficient local governments that deliver the basic services that make employment possible.
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Image: Unemployed graduates from KwaZulu-Natal and Pretoria gather at Burgers Park before marching to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to hand over a memorandum to officials demanding that the government find solutions to rising unemployment. Credit: Gallo Images / Phill Magakoe
