South Africa’s ‘recovery’ plan is more than just hiring thousands of government workers: minister
The government’s coronavirus recovery plan is not solely based on public employment programmes, says Employment and Labour minister Thulas Nxesi.
Responding in a recent written parliamentary Q&A, Nxesi said that while Public Employment Programmes (PEPs) are vitally important, they will be used in conjunction with other programmes.
“An emphatic point has to be made that the nature of unemployment in our country is such that, it is high, it is structural, systemic and deep-seated,” he said.
Nxesi added that the nature of unemployment in South Africa is compounded by a lack of requisite skills as well as misalignment of them.
“Given this sad reality, a focused, in touch, alert and forward-thinking government would bring among its interventions (like) mass employment and PEPs offer such.
“So, Public Employment Programmes are tremendously important in the context of countries like ours, they are key. Do we rely only on them for job creation? Of course not!”
Nxesi said that one of the key aspects of the economic reconstruction and recovery plan is the planned infrastructure programme.
The minister said that infrastructure development has huge potential including ‘almost guaranteed job creation’.
“Whether you talk of transforming of cities, towns, rural areas landscape or creation of bulk water infrastructure, national roads improvements projects, school construction, network infrastructure such as ports, rail, roads, etc – those go concurrently with the creation of employment.”
Nxesi said that South Africa’s economic reconstruction and recovery plan also includes plans for mass industrialisation. This reindustrialisation will create employment and will also grow business, he said.
“The creation of jobs is one of the key objectives of the economic reconstruction and recovery plan. There is also an aim to reverse the decline of the local manufacturing sector, the resuscitation of tourism, you should know the capacity of tourism in terms of labour absorption.
“There will also be unchartered terrain especially when we go deeper to digital advancement, the space is alive with possibilities particularly when it comes to youth employment. This plan will invest in our human capital even for the future.”
Read: South Africa’s UIF could collapse if Covid-19 payments are extended
Loading ...