*YCLSA’s NATIONAL JOBS FOR YOUTH SUMMIT* *Address by the National Secretary of the YCLSA, Cde. Buti Manamela* * Rescuing the Future of South Africa: A Framework for Youth Employment*
* 20 MAY 2010 * *1. Introduction* 1.1 We have invited all of you here, from the Freedom Front + Youth and Afri-Forum to the Azanian People’s Front and the Pan African Youth Movement; from the Democratic Alliance Youth to structures of the Young Communist League; from the ANC Youth League to the Congress of the People Youth Movement and the IFP Youth Brigade. Young communists have brought young capitalists in the same room, civil society, youth NGO’s, Council of Churches and every young person to discuss the problem of unemployment. This cuts across race and culture, religion and creed; and therefore is the one platform to unite us as the youth to deal with youth unemployment. 1.2 We should forget about political bickering; political differences and so forth and focus on the issue that cuts across the political, social, economic and religious divide. We should invest our energy and radical thoughts to deal with these problems. There is no set agenda, no draft resolutions and no pre-empted proposals. Everything should come from you, the delegates to this Summit. We should probe the Ministers who are invited on what they are doing for youth employment creation. We should ask why certain resolutions have not been implemented, before we hear of “pigs in different lipsticks” (or new initiatives). 1.3 Oliver Tambo, the former President of the African National Congress once said: “A nation, a people that does not cherish and value its children/youth does not deserve its future!” 1.4 These words are as true today as they were when they were first uttered. Comrade OR’s prescient wisdom forces us to reflect on the state of youth development after fifteen years of democratic rule. This is made even more poignant by the fact that soon, in four years time, South Africa will be marking the 20th Anniversary of the 1994 democratic breakthrough. When that day arrives we will be confronted by the inescapable question – what has been the value of democracy to young people? Has the promise of a better life been fulfilled, deferred or are young people, at least in working class communities still trapped in grinding poverty? 1.5 The search for a new growth and development path, rooted in the vision of linking redistribution and development, as espoused in the Reconstruction and Development Programme, is much more urgent as we move towards the 20th Anniversary of the post-apartheid South Africa. Since the mid-90’s the economy recorded positive albeit slow output growth combined with the restoration of profitability to South African capital. However this has been an unstable, volatile and inequitable growth path. Inequality has worsened and it seems South Africa now holds the dubious distinction of being the most unequal nation in the world. Inequality manifests in a number of ways including opportunities, livelihoods, human development and in terms of skill and occupation. The sad truth is that Blacks, in particular Africans, still occupy the bottom rung of our society in many respects. African women bear the brunt of unemployment, poverty and inequality. 1.6 Employment creation, in the formal non-agricultural sector has lagged behind the staggering unemployment rate, whether measured by the official or expanded rate. The quality of some of these jobs leaves much to be desired – characteristically they are of a short duration with no meaningful benefits. Poverty on the other hand may have stabilised at unacceptable levels. Ultimately, the issue is no longer just a narrow focus on growth but on the type of that growth. Capital perpetuated the myth that the goal of economic policy must narrowly focus on growing the economy and somehow the benefits would trickle-down. Experience of the past fifteen years has exposed the shallowness of this approach by showing that growth does not automatically benefit everyone. Worse, a narrow focus on growth has further marginalised many people and some regions from the economic mainstream. 1.7 It is against this background the YCLSA felt compelled to convene this important summit to contribute to the debate on a suitable development strategy that will unleash the potential of our people. *2. The nature and scale of the problem* 2.1 I want to focus on the human dimension of the unemployment and employment challenge for young people. For that purpose, I would like to narrate the experience of one unemployed comrade and three of employed young people. Several inputs will give a detailed analysis of the scale and nature of the problem. Often the debate seems to focus on statistics BUT we must remember that we are talking about human beings. 2.2 First let me introduce you to Xoliswa, a 20 year old unemployed young person living with her grandmother in Soshanguve, Tswane. Xoliswa like many young people is a recent migrant from the rural Eastern Cape who came to Gauteng to search for work. She is from one of the traditional areas that used to send workers to the mines in Gauteng. However, retrenchments have seen her father laid off work and has been forced to seek a living as a small subsistence farmer. Her mother has not worked due to previous influx control legislation of the apartheid era that sought to limit the movement of African people, and confine African women in the reserves. 2.3 Due to government policy to open the doors of Learning, Xoliswa has finished matric but decided to look for employment for two reasons. First, she cannot afford the prohibitive fees charged by institutions of higher learning and further education. To make matters worse, her matric results do not qualify for entry in former whites-only universities. The second reason she decided to join the labour market is to supplement her parents and grandmother’s income and to help raise her siblings. The only source of income in her Soshanguve home is the granny’s state old age pension. To find employment she must overcome several hurdles: · She must find information about available jobs suitable for her qualifications. Typically information is found in newspaper, radio and to a limited extent through word of mouth. Alternatively she can stand in the corners or at factory gates hoping for an offer of employment. Thus the first hoop she must jump is to find relevant and timely information about available jobs and this costs money. · Secondly, she needs the necessary papers like CV, certified copies of qualifications and identification. Again typing and copying costs money. If she is unfortunate to live far from an Internet café then she needs travelling money. · Third, supposing she identifies several jobs in a daily newspaper. She must now fax her application and that also cost money. · Suppose that she has been invited to an interview in Johannesburg she now need money to travel and proper clothes – in this image conscious society appearance matter. Now we are introduced to the micro-economics of distribution of income in the household. The granny has a choice of giving money to Xoliswa to go to the interview or spend it on the necessities. For that matter, the interview is a risky enterprise as nothing is guaranteed. This is the fourth hoop that Xoliswa must jump. 2.4 In a nutshell, this tale graphically explains the challenges faced by unemployment young people in a similar position to Xoliswa. That is, the cost of searching for employment confronting young people in this situation. Paradoxically even if jobs were available she would find it hard to access these jobs. The tale also highlights the costs of education be it FET or higher education. It also highlights the role of social grants as a buffer against poverty in many poor households. More fundamentally it underlines the pivotal role of universal education provided by the state. 2.5 On a different note, let me introduce Prudence a product of an exclusive private school that just joined the world of employment. The workplace rudely reminds her of her status as a black female in the workplace. Most senior positions that matter are controlled by white males. The culture is alien as if there is a parallel universe existing in the same workplace. For example some decisions seem to be taken in informal networks of boys clubs, which however affect how the workplace is run. She also discovers that there is some kind of jobs reservation for blacks, of course not legislated. Sure blacks are accepted in some senior post – but only just. The glass ceiling has floated upwards and it seems impregnable to a recent recruit to the world of work. So despite having top notch qualifications you are not assured of fair and equal treatment in the workplace. 2.6 At the other end of the spectrum is Sipho, a streetwise township ‘mjita’. Sipho’s family has lived in Umlazi for as long as he remembers. Even though the family embarks on an annual pilgrimage to the “real home” in Nongoma he is more comfortable with city life. Sipho works as a security guard in one of the retail chains and earns R1, 800 per month. Somehow he manages to survive with this meagre salary, but only just. He lives in a shack or politely an informal house in his parent’s household. He is resigned to his fate as a security guard not even hoping to climb the corporate ladder in his firm. To do this, he must divert some of the money to studying in order to upgrade his skills. In any event he spends close to 20 percent of his income on travelling to his workplace in Durban. The skills development programme in his workplace has not advanced beyond ABET. In this case, having a job does not mean it will pay a decent wage or open up opportunities to upgrade your skills. 2.7 Finally, let me introduce you to Bohlale from Galishewe, who graduated two years ago with a business science degree. He has been looking for a suitable job for the past two years since graduating. At university he constantly heard that business science is one of the rare skills in South Africa and employers are not only willing to hire but to also pay top dollar. After two years of searching he is beginning to wonder where are these scarce-skills jobs, or is something wrong with him. This illustrates that having qualifications, even rare ones, is not a guarantee to having a job. 2.8 I hope that with these stories I have painted a picture on the challenges confronting employed and unemployed young people. Lest I be accused of focusing on the negative I must hasten to add that I take the opportunities given to young people as given. The aim of this summit is among others to maximise such positive opportunities for many young people. Secondly, we do recognise that there are many ways in which young people can generate legitimate income including setting up businesses. That of course should be taken care of in broader Youth Development Strategy. However, the focus of this summit is on job creation. 2.9 How do we account for this entrenched high level of unemployment in South Africa? One approach is to analyse it from the supply-side of the labour market. This approach does not peruse the fundamental causes of why this economy is failing to absorb substantial numbers of job seekers; hence a fixation with supply-side of the labour market. That is overemphasis on the price of labour and workers and job-seekers skills. This somehow explains why the economy is not creating large scale employment for low skilled workers. It goes without saying that the solution is to drop the price of labour and/or increase the skill of labour. No wonder business always calls for flexibility – a code word for low wages and easy firing rules. In this respect labour laws are seen as a hindrance to employment creation. The proposed wage-subsidy by Treasury falls within this framework. Of course, as I have demonstrated with some of the examples above, the supply-side does matter BUT does not explain why South Africa is struggling on employment creation – it is a partial explanation. 2.10 The hard question is why is this economy failing to create jobs that will mop up the low skill unemployment problem That is, why is labour demand falling behind economic growth? We should recall that demand for labour is a function of demand for output. If aggregate demand is low then demand for labour will correspondingly be low. South Africa has a thin a domestic economy relying on less than 20 percent of the population. Further, production has shifted toward more capital-intensive goods destined for export markets or limited to the affluent. Not enough to boost demand for labour! For that matter we import a lot of labour intensive goods from foodstuffs to clothing. 2.11 Second is the structural shift in the economy towards finance following the collapse of mining, agricultural and some labour intensive manufacturing? Mechanisation in mining and agriculture has aggravated the poor performance of these sectors in terms of employment. No sector has emerged to create large scale employment opportunities to replace or equal the jobs lost in these sectors. As such we need to unpack the STRUCTURAL causes of the unemployment crisis. Otherwise we will fix the supply side and find that at best there are inadequate job opportunities or worse it result in the displacement of full-time workers by this new layer of cheap labour. Sounds like robbing Peter to pay Dikeledi or blaming the victims. *3. Issues for Consideration* 3.1 In this section I wish to highlight key issues for discussion by the Commissions and the Summit. It is clear that an Employment Strategy is required to accompany government economic policy. 3.2 Strategy to change the growth path and structure towards large scale absorption of labour, especially low skilled labour. In this regard manufacturing, including the entire agro-processing value chain is key. The Summit should interrogate current economic policies from a job creation lens including: a) Interrogating whether IPAP strategy if fully implemented would support the objective of creating large scale decent employment. A related question is whether it supports the growth of sectors with higher potential to absorb the unemployed. South Africa is facing pressures for eco-friendly energy production. To that end the role of renewable in creating substantial employment should be interrogated. Finally macroeconomic policy should be adjusted to the employment creation objective. The National Youth Development Agency task should be to monitor the performance of government at all levels regarding employment creation. b) The President has announced that Ministers will sign Performance Contract with key deliverables. It is clear that employment creation cannot be assigned to one Ministry. In that respect the Summit should insist on employment creation being one of the Key Performance Area for every Ministry and Department. c) Measures to improve job search and decrease the cost thereof are also important as highlighted above. Government has several agencies that can play a role in providing information regarding availability of jobs and access to ICT. These include the Department of Labour, Communications and the Universal Service Agency to cite a few. An audit is necessary to evaluate the performance of these agencies in this respect and to work with them to pilot these ideas. d) The Summit should also have a clear discussion on what we mean around wages and working conditions. In this respect, it should develop our own approach towards a Living Wage Campaign. It is also imperative to engage the Ministry of Transport and other public transport agencies regarding reducing transport cost of job seekers. e) A comprehensive human development strategy is essential to provide the necessary skills for young job seekers and out of work youth. To that end the Summit needs to interrogate the education system and the workplace learning system in term of its performance of providing the necessary skills. An evaluation of the SETA’s, the National Skills Authority, the Ministries of Basic and Higher Education as well education institutions from primary to higher education if they are in order. f) We should ask ourselves why we do not have a South African car, manufactured locally and having a multiplier effects towards jobs. Why do we import fluorescent bulbs from China instead of manufacturing them locally? Why do we import cellphone mobile gadgets instead of manufacturing them locally? There are many more other innovative ways which will be in support of real entrepreneurs rather than the tenderpreneurs. Government should support business people who have real factories and generate employment, rather than supporting BEE that does not yield jobs and not support employment creation. 3.3 This is indeed a tall task for the YCLSA and requires an implementation strategy plus an organisation machinery to drive this. Perhaps all commissions should discuss how the youth can implement the resolutions from this “Jobs for Youth Summit”. 3.4 Some comrades may well ask what does this have to do with Socialism. I will quickly remind comrades that our strategy is to build the foundation for a socialist future in the current phase of the NDR. Sure, if these measures are successful they will incorporate young people into a capitalist economy and perhaps improve the profitability of the system. But the working class cannot disengage from the task of improving the lives of the exploited during the transition. It is also important that we experiment during this phase with socialist methods of cooperation in the sphere of production and reproduction. This will play a critical role in creating a nuclear of socialist methods of cooperation within the capitalist system. The developmental state thus become essential in transforming the racial capitalism currently entrenched in South Africa. Large scale cooperatives should be part of the strategy to change the structure of production in the South African society. *For more information * *Contact * *Gugu Ndima* *National Spokesperson * *076 783 1516* -- Gugu Ndima +27 76 783 1516 -- Gugu Ndima +27 76 783 1516 -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
