The rise in unemployment in die Free State is indicative of economic decline, failed policy and an unsuccessful government. The critical state of municipalities in the Free State, due to their utter mismanagement, is responsible for the province becoming impoverished. Poor to no service delivery and dilapidated infrastructure creates an environment in which it is impossible for the private sector to expand and create jobs, said Wouter Wessels, FF Plus MPL in the Free State Legislature, in reaction to the latest statistics on unemployment.
Unemployment in South Africa is a full scale crisis and the numerous job creation initiatives of the ANC government are all failures.
According to Stats SA, unemployment increased from 26.5% to 27.7% during the first quarter of 2017.
The Free State has the highest unemployment rate of all the provinces with 35.5% (expanded unemployment rate: 41.7%). Since March 2016, 17 000 jobs in private households, in other words domestic workers and gardeners, were lost in the Free State.
“This is indicative of the fact that the middle class in the Free State is becoming impoverished. The government’s mismanagement, ill-considered decisions as well as legislation and policies that restrict job creation are destroying the economy.
“Unemployment will certainly increase even more if the new national minimum wage is implemented, as planned, next year. Legislation and policies, like the national minimum wage, are restrictive, especially if one considers South Africa’s current poor economic growth and impoverishment. It leads to layoffs and an increase in mechanisation, which in turn exacerbates the unemployment crisis.
“Unemployment is on the rise despite the ANC government spending billions of rands on job creation projects like the Expanded Public Works Program (EPWP).
“The unemployment problem will not be solved unless the government comes to the realisation that the state cannot be the primary creator of jobs seeing as it is not sustainable. The only solution for unemployment is economic growth and policy certainty, which will create a favourable environment for the private sector to create jobs.
“The ANC government’s ideology, which forms the foundation of their policy framework, is removed from the South African reality and is consequently destroying the economy,” said Wessels.
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