THE YOUTH WAGE SUBSIDY AND OPPORTUNISTIC and BASELESS DA MARCH TO COSATU HOUSE
According to the 2010 mid‐year population estimates by Statistics South Africa young people make up 41.2% of the South Africa making the country a fairly young nation. It was therefore with concern that we learnt earlier this month that 75,000 jobs were lost in the last quarter raising the unemployment statistics to 25.2% up from 23.9% in the last quarter of 2011.
This figure, however, excludes over a million people who are not counted as unemployed since they have been pushed permanently out of the labour force as discouraged work seekers. At about 70% the youth group makes up the largest chunk of the unemployed. This basically means that more than 3 million young people capable of working and in need of jobs do not have jobs.
The unemployment crisis is also defined along racial lines due to the fact that in the third quarter of 2010, 29.80% of blacks were officially unemployed, compared with 22.30% of coloureds, 8.60% of Asians and only 5.10% of whites. About 12 million of the population lives on less than R2.50 per day, whilst 16 million South Africans receive social grants.
In essence, the reality is that unemployed youth are not a homogeneous group, but a varied group with varied experiences and exposed to various different conditions. The unemployed youth come from various social strata, classes, religions, and backgrounds and a mechanism to respond to their challenges should not be too homogeneous because it will miss many of them. A perspective that just says, "a certain percentage of young people under the age of 30 are unemployed" somewhat creates an impression that this is a homogenous group.
According to demographers, it is not all doom and gloom. South Africa could benefit from the youth bulge that it is currently experiencing. In order to take advantage we need policies that will ensure that investments into the economy, the education, and the health of young people are put in place. However the belief that a training-based wage youth subsidy is the solution is unfounded as the proposal is based on a couple of baseless suppositions.
A supposition that young people do not have jobs because they are risky to employ is not true. A supposition that young people do not have jobs because they are incapable of doing work is also not entirely true. The major reason why young people are not employed is because the South African economy is unable to absolve the entirety of its workforce.
This is so because the number of vacancies in both the private and public sector that exist because of lack of skills, knowledge and expertise do not exceed 200, 000 in South Africa, whilst the unemployed population is above 5 million. A supposition that unemployment is a result skills shortage altogether misses the point, because it supposes that if the 5 million people who are currently unemployed can be equipped with skills and experience urgently, they will find jobs.
Migration into South Africa constitute part of its history from as early as 1840, where migrant-labourers from Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and other neighbouring countries migrated into South Africa for socio-economic reasons. The Institute of Race Relations believes that there are between 3 and 5 million immigrants now living in South Africa.
This does not include the refugees and asylum seekers. It appears the biggest beneficiary of socio-economic migration into South Africa is the private sector. The undocumented migrants are used as reserves for cheap labour in South Africa's mines, factories, farms, retail stores, construction industries, etc. As a result we have a two-tier labour system with protected legal labourers and illegal migrant-labourers who are not protected by the labour laws, including the prescriptions of minimum wages for farm and mine workers.
The fact is the wage subsidy carries with a high potential of unintended consequences and will achieve very little in improving the conditions of youth. Instead of decisively dealing with the challenge, the proposal could turn young people into glorified slaves of companies in the interest of expanding profits.
It is therefore disingenuous but not surprising that the Democratic Alliance (DA) tried to march to the offices of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) today, Tuesday 15 March 2012. The ANC Youth League has always maintained that the DA is rightwing formation helbend on reversing gains of our democracy, that is Instigator of neo - apartheid, e.g. DA comments that blacks seen as refugees in Western Cape, a province regarded by DA as white enclave.
The DA claims that the introduction of a youth wage subsidy could create 400, 000 jobs for unemployed young South Africans. However what the DA is omitting to say is that past interventions such as learnerships, employer's subsidies and internships have in the past failed to make a meaningful impact on youth unemployment. Learnerships were implemented on the premise that they will create a skills base that will be absorbed by the labour market; instead they created unsustainable expectations from young people, as they were not absorbed into the labour market.
Almost the same can be said about internships. The question we beg to ask is, what will make corporate South Africa's reception of the wage subsidy any different from the existing programmes such as learnerships? The fact is there is no security for the jobs to be created by the youth wage subsidy after the expiry of the subsidy period.
The DA indicates that youth wage subsidy will lower the effective cost of employment and create thousands of jobs without an adjustment of wages or conditions of employment. What they are neglecting to say is that as with internships and learnerships, employers can continue rotating workers thus gaining from the subsidy without ever fully employing the workers. In the process employers can justify low wages.
Furthermore the current wage subsidy as promised does not have clear mechanisms on how replacement of paid labour with wage subsidised workers will be avoided, because possibilities of corporations retrenching workers in favour of wage subsidised are very high. These possibilities are very high because in South Africa, most bourgeoisies complain about the cost of labour, which they say is very high.
The resource allocated for wage subsidy can and should be alternatively used for youth targeted developmental and entrepreneurial projects and programmes.
The fact is there is an accepted negative correlation between unemployment and educational attainment. Therefore more emphasis has to be placed on access to quality education and the development of entrepreneurial skills amongst young people. South Africa needs a multi-pronged approach that will repair both basic and higher education while addressing various issues relating to government policies and programmes, labour market and most importantly, private sector commitment to develop, nurture and retain young talent.
There is a need for structured and targeted skills development programmes that match the basic needs to grow the country's economy while improving the quality of service delivery. Such interventions will also open up self-employment opportunities for the youth. For example, at local government level there are huge skills shortages such that service delivery is hampered.
Just last week the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) reported that there were 30, 000 vacant positions in local government. This provides an opportunity for government to implement skills development programmes that address service delivery limitations at local government level while enhancing youth skills. This can be done through improving programmes such as the National Youth Service programme where young people receive training while providing a national service such as building government subsidised houses.
The ANC Youth League expressed its support for COSATU against labour brokering. We believe that labour brokering leads to the practice of turning workers into perpetual casual labourers with no benefits even after years of working in the same company. Labour brokering takes away from the worker by lowering their salaries while brokers benefit. The practice exploits workers who are just treated as rented tools.
While we call for the ban of labour brokering it is important to note that our call does not amount to a call for some quasi-regulations, which might end up not being overseen by anyone, therefore leaving space for continued exploitation of workers. What we are calling for is for all workers to be treated humanely and given their full rights free from exploitation.
In conclusion, The Democratic Alliance ‘s march to COSATU offices must be condemned by all progressive forces in our society; this march by DA is opportunistic and baseless. No amount of March to COSATU HQ by DA, a remnant of apartheid, will stop the progressive forces to fight and undermine neo-liberal policies. DA's failed attempts to introduce two - tier labour system was consistent with GEAR, a 1996 Class project' policy trajectory. WAGE SUBSIDY that is advocated by DA is an attempt to reintroduce the failed two-tier labour market system which COSATU and the broader progressive forces have massively rejected.
Thabo Kupa is an ANCYL NEC Member and also NYDA Gauteng Board member-Economic development.
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