Unemployment in South Africa has started to resume its upward spiral after the last eight quarters’ slightly decreasing rate. The rise reflects the reality of the country’s economic decline.
The temporary improvement in the unemployment rate was a given due to the carnage that Covid-19 caused on the labour market.
The FF Plus foresees that loadshedding and the recently adjusted minimum wage will feed this upward spiral of unemployment in the coming months.
According to the latest unemployment figures from Statistics South Africa (SSA), unemployment is currently up to 32.1%. Extended unemployment stands at 41.1% compared to the previous quarter’s 41.2%.
It is a tragedy that 11.7 million South Africans who are ready to enter the labour market and help build the economy sit at home unemployed.
This situation will only deteriorate further under a government that puts its own interests above that of the country.
As was recently heard from a senior ANC official and deputy chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Ms. Sylvia Lucas, in her comments on the state of the nation address, the ANC does not consider loadshedding “as the end of the world”.
It is clear that the ANC is not only too incompetent to end loadshedding, but that it, like Ms. Lucas, is in fact not really serious about its effect on ordinary South Africans.
The reality of loadshedding is that it will further shrink the economy as businesses and factories will have to close or drastically scale back their operations.
Unlike Ms. Lucas’ callous view from a privileged position, loadshedding does mean the end of the world for many people when they are laid off and cannot find another job.
Likewise, the deterioration of local government and declining service delivery play a major role as a contributing factor to economic decline and unemployment.
According to a survey by the medical union Samatu, around 800 qualified doctors are unemployed. Against the backdrop of a collapsing public health system, this probably best describes the real crisis of unemployment.
If there are so many people like doctors, pharmacists and nurses whose expertise is of critical importance but they cannot find work, how much more will uneducated people struggle to find work?
The results of the ANC government’s incompetence, mismanagement and corruption over thirty years can no longer be reasoned away. Not even with apartheid.
It is time for every South African to draw his or her cross in the upcoming election to bring a new, competent government to power. Those who fail to do so, cannot be too sure that they will not soon become part of the country’s unemployment statistics.
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