EDITOR- This is an open letter to our ANC government from a young strategist.
Our government is using or rather spending taxpayers' money to create unemployment and deprive themselves from receiving more tax by simply doing the opposite.
My name is Rapelang Makhetha. I am local resident of Glenwood, Durban. Over some time I have been analyzing the unemployment rate of our country and it is sad because many people may say that they do not have money to further their studies after matric but the issue here is not money, it is lack of knowledge.
There are many government operations that provide funds for young people who want to further their studies and one of the financial instruments is NSFAS. This is a student loan which can turn into a bursary if the student is a high achiever, furthermore, many matriculates are sitting at home doing nothing with their matric certificates because they are not informed of such financial instruments.
I personally think our government gives too many unnecessary incentives e.g. grant for newborn babies with unemployed parents, this grant is the worst of them all because it kills the minds of young women. I have come across some as young as 22, with three kids. When I asked them why so many kids at such a young age they say that they can't find jobs so having a baby is the only way they can get some sort of income, so now the newborn babies are the breadwinners? What the hell is wrong with our young people? The government has destroyed many young minds with this particular grant. If however this grant did not exist, I believe there would be far less teenage pregnancies and it would leave our young women no choice but to work hard for themselves and their babies if ever they had them. The only people who deserve grants are old people and the disabled.
I know the government is trying to help feed babies but how many of those grants actually feed the babies? I know women who use the money for their own personal use. Instead of the government giving grants for children, they should rather have an infant/baby department where a mother or whoever is looking after the baby can go and purchase baby products or they can have new separate grant cards that can only buy baby products or baby clothes at selected outlets chosen by the government. All these grants dished out by the government should rather be put in skills development. The government should only provide base level basic needs for the needy. Its as though South African people want to live a luxury life at the expense of the government, but if you think about it, somebody has to pay for all these expenditures and it is the tax payers that pay for them. The more the unnecessary expenses the more the tax rises. If all these unnecessary expenses can be pushed out the system maybe taxes won't rise as much as they will if things continue this way.
Rapelang Makhetha
Glenwood
