The latest expanded unemployment rate of 43%, the highest that South Africa has ever recorded, serves as proof that the country has been suffering from an unemployment pandemic for very long and that the Covid-19 pandemic only made matters worse.
The current unemployment rate cannot be effectively compared to the second quarter's seeing as those figures were distorted by the national lockdown.
The unemployment rate has, however, gradually and steadily increased quarter after quarter from 29,1 % in the last quarter of 2019 to 30,1% in the first quarter of 2020 and now the record figure of 30,8%. The expanded unemployment rate of 43,1%, which includes demotivated jobseekers, is extremely alarming.
It means that nearly half the workforce in South Africa is unemployed. The government's restrictive labour legislation and its obsession with cosmetic transformation and social engineering are costing the country dearly.
A staggering 2,2 million job opportunities have been lost in the private sector over the last period. The private sector is under immense pressure and the government seems to be contributing to that the most.
If the biggest creator of jobs in the country is not allowed to freely create more jobs in a favourable economic environment, then the unemployment rate will simply keep increasing and so will the accompanying socio-economic problems, like poverty, crime, alcohol and drug abuse.
The government refuses to listen to sound advice and is preventing the private sector from creating more job opportunities. The ruling party is being held hostage by its own ideologies and alliance partners, including the trade unions. Ideology must not be put before the interests of the people of South Africa.
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