Madam Speaker, ministerial entourage, hon members and fellow South Africans, people have spoken about unemployment. I am going to speak about the people who are unemployed because the majority of people are looking up to this department as to what is it that they are going to do in order to make them feel like South Africans. I stand here today to speak on behalf of millions of South Africans who are struggling to find employment and provide for their families. Their circumstances seem to be getting worse on a daily basis under the watch of the insensitive ANC government, this despite the country having a fully-fledged Ministry of Employment
which is supposed to cater for their lives and welfare, and continues to fail.
When the majority of our people, most of whom are poor, destitute, unemployed, sick, young and old exercised their constitutional right and went out to vote on 8 May, they only had one thing in mind, to vote for a government that will urgently respond to their economic challenges through job creation. The ANC continues to fail. When fellow South Africans elected us to represent them, they entered into a social contract with us so that we can deliver the promises we made during our campaigns, to improve the quality of their lives through decent job opportunities. But the ANC continues to fail them. As we speak, the unemployment rate stands at 27% and poverty levels in the country are reaching crisis proportion. Unemployment is declared by this government as a crisis. But, does it have solutions? Definitely not. When the President concocts dreams of bullet trains and smart cities, the unemployed and vulnerable people continue to be traumatised daily by the inability to find decent jobs to feed and educate their families, to take care of their sick because of the dysfunctional health system. All this is happening because the ANC has failed to honour the social contract that they signed with the voters on 8 May.
This government has no plan and has failed consistently to fix the unemployment problem for decades now. South Africa is still a tale of two nations, one for the rich and the other for the poor, one for economic insiders and one for economic outsiders. Everyone in the House agrees that the gap between the employed and the unemployed, the poor and the rich, continues to grow. All this because there is a lack of political will to solve the poverty trap that weighs down on most South Africans. Hon Minister Nxesi, in case you are still in doubt about your duty as a South African, let me help you. [Applause.] [Interjections.]