Two Bits – Which is better – some jobs or none at all?

It is nearly 40 years since I was one of a huge crowd at the funeral of Steve Biko in King William’s Town in September 1977. Not a year later I was at the graveside of yet another towering black political figure, Robert Sobukwe, on March 11, 1978, in the dusty Karoo town of Graaff-Reinet.
Those were heady days. The atmosphere at both funerals was thick with a mixture of deep anger and frustration. The uprisings in Soweto, Langa and elsewhere – ostensibly against the teaching of Afrikaans – in 1976 were still fresh in people’s memories.
The Pan Africanist Congress, operating underground, and Biko’s Black Consciousness Movement were not the first black political movements to challenge the fable of apartheid – “separate but equal” – that John Vorster’s government was trying, and failing, to keep the lid on. But those two occasions were unusual because they provided unique platforms for black people to express their anger in front of the world.
I wonder what those two men, looking down on earth today, would think of our national discourse? Twenty-two years on from liberation, so much has changed from the perspective of my generation, but younger people have nothing to compare with so they think nothing has changed.
And in many ways, they would be right. The poor are mostly still poor. Unemployment is at staggering levels. Food is expensive. Everything is expensive.
What has changed is that there is a rapidly growing middle class – even over-the-top rich. You can see that by the change in the urban population. Nevertheless, there is still plenty of unemployment and poverty.
The ANC Youth League is planning to march on the opening of the Junction Mall this week because, they say, the youth of the region have not benefitted from jobs at the mall.
I would disagree. Mayor Ricardo Mthembu has acknowledged the jobs the mall has given to locals. I know several local black contractors working there, who came through the Chamber of Commerce’s Entrepreneur programme. They empowered themselves, not waiting for somebody to hand them a job on a plate.
I wonder if it is of any concern to the league that the mall will generate huge rates revenue for local government, which will then be in a position to pass the benefits onto its citizens. It will also spawn secondary enterprises, from handymen to security to air-conditioning services.
They need to lobby their elected ward representatives to gain some of that windfall through job creation programmes. I think the difference between Sobukwe and Biko, and the YL leaders, is that the former were thinking long term, whereas today’s youth look no further than today.
It is disappointing that the municipality has seen fit to allow the league to march on Thursday. What should be a celebration of economic growth for this region will instead become a circus that some will seek to make political capital from.
The league trots out tired catchphrases like “white monopoly capital”. Money knows no colour, but ask yourselves this: If the mall had not been built, there would have been 3 000 fewer construction jobs and 1 500 permanent jobs in the market. It cannot provide the 20 000 jobs or more that are needed to give everyone a job, but which is preferable – 4 500 jobs or no jobs?
Shows of militancy will drive other investors away from the North Coast – investors who in turn could create more jobs. Is that the aim? To have an economic desert?
Wake up and smell the roses. The future belongs to the industrious.

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I am so proud of our teams at The North Coast Courier and Get It Ballito.Umhlanga magazine.
This week’s Courier at 108 pages is our largest ever – 48 pages in the main body, plus a 60-page Junction supplement, plus 16 advertising inserts. It will be a monster to deliver!
The Get It magazine appearing next week will be 92 pages, including a 32-page supplement on the Junction.
Everyone – sales reps, editorial writers, designers, administrative and delivery staff – has worked tirelessly hand-in-hand with the developers and tenants to showcase the best the new mall has to offer.
Well done to everyone, and we hope you, our readers and advertisers, enjoy and benefit from these products.
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Today I found my first grey pubic hair. I got really excited, but not as much as the other people in the lift.