In South Africa statistics show that out of 100 people; almost 40 of them are unemployed. And, the thorny issue is that out of this 40 unemployed people the majority of them are the youth. This augurs ill for South Africa as the country is counted among those with the high number of unemployed people.
Even, countries with a high population like the United States of America (USA) and others have not such a high number of unemployed people. Therefore, it is an absolute balderdash what is usually said by some employers that laws governing labour relations favour the employees in a sense that they make it impossible for employers to just fire non-productive workers.
In fact, this 40 percent unemployed people include people who have never been employed before and those who have lost jobs for different reasons. The undeniable truth is that most workers are fired because these greedy capitalist usually aspire for lucrative bonuses at the end of each year.
In our country one may even find people with PHD qualifications struggling to find employment for months and even a year. It is not rare to find people with National Diplomas driving taxis, etc. Some of these learned people have even given up on seeking employment. However, I loathe discouraging people from seeking employment or thriving to succeed.
It is even more melancholic if one thinks that each and every one employed person has at least four dependent people on his/her salary.
However, without being an unconstructive critic, I would like to commend the government because statistics show that at least it has been able to hire about 1 300 000 people.
But, this is just like a drop in the ocean if one thinks that South Africa has a population of about 50 million. What about the private sector? Clearly, it should come on board because if it doesn’t immediately help, our country is sitting on a ticking time bomb. The government can have child support grants and old-age pensions but, no country can prosper with so many unemployed people.
If we can’t cater for our youth, we would never ever be able to decrease the crime rate. Let us not forget that idle hands, the devil it becomes.
Philani Hadebe is a freelance journalist who majored in Political Science.
