The ANC launched its 2019 election manifesto with much fanfare in Durban this past weekend. The cornerstone of the document is a commitment (again) to create 1,3 million jobs in the next five years. One can be forgiven for regarding this as little more than a pipe dream, in the light of the promises made around job creation leading up to the elections in 2014, where a million jobs were going to be created in five years…

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Internal factors

The brutal reality is that the unemployment rate currently sits at 27 percent, and the ruling party has not been able to conceive and execute policies to meaningfully impact this. Granted, there are external global factors that have influenced the state the economy finds itself in, but an honest introspection will reveal that there are more internal factors, such as state capture and the chaos at SOEs such as Eskom and Denel that have led us to where we find ourselves. Statistics from the rest of Africa reveal that smaller economies such as Rwanda, Kenya and Ghana have achieved economic growth well in excess of ours, while confronted with the same global factors.

Action is needed

It is laudable that the manifesto has acknowledged many of the failings in policy and governance that have contributed to the state of the country, but acknowledgement is not enough – drastic and immediate action is needed to ensure that we do not find ourselves on the slippery path to disaster again.

So what needs to be done to ensure that the job creation targets are achieved?

It is widely acknowledged that the ruling party is the custodian of some of the most progressive and innovative policies to catapult our economy to another level – all that is needed is the will and capacity to implement them.

While noting that governments cannot in actual fact ‘create jobs’ they can ensure a climate and environment that encourages companies to create jobs.

They can also implement policies that promote and stimulate job creation. These include the implementation (long in the making) of directing 30 percent of procurement to SMMEs, ensuring that service providers are paid within 30 days or less, and ensuring that local government is adequately delivering on its service delivery mandate.

After matriculating, Vijay Naidoo studied Economics in the UK. Upon his return, hejoined the family construction business as MD for 10 years.

He subsequently joined his sister in their furniture manufacturing business as director for quality assurance and operations. He was responsible for all quality aspects of their products, and led the project to the business achieving an ISO 9000 quality accreditation. As an export focused business, this was important for our international competitiveness.

Mr Naidoo has an abiding interest in quality management and productivity improvement, particularly in manufacturing.

More recently, he has focused a lot of his time on giving back to the community by way of mentorship of small businesses and sitting on the executive of the South Coast Chamber of Commerce. He also sits on the Board of the Ugu South Coast Development Agency.