Chairperson, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers, MECs from Gauteng, the Minister from the Western Cape and members, I would like to quote President Jacob Zuma:
"Meaningful economic activity in townships and rural villages and towns is needed to fight poverty, unemployment and inequality."
President Zuma was speaking at the Soweto International Conference on Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development at the University of Johannesburg's Soweto campus on 15 May 2012.
In the spirit of redressing the inequalities of the past, we need to brace ourselves and find systems to correct them, allowing all South Africans to benefit from the wealth of our beloved country, South Africa. The Department of Trade and Industry needs to create open opportunities for clothing, textile, footwear and leather workers to be employed locally and to manufacture "Proudly South African" products.
In Programme 3 of the Empowerment and Enterprise Development Division, there is an opportunity for development and growth in small, medium and micro enterprises, as well as co-operative enterprises. An amount of R438,6 million is allocated, of which 90% is transferred for payment to the Small Enterprise Development Agency.
However, SMMEs and co-operatives do not receive the necessary support and mentorship required for them to be sustainable and to contribute to alleviating poverty in South Africa. SMMEs and co-operatives must be aligned with a mentor for at least one year to allow them to develop and learn from an experienced person, one who has already gone through the process of running a successful business. A successful mentorship programme can only benefit the SMMEs and co-operatives.
Scheduled to visit two co-operatives in Mpumalanga, I was very excited to be told that we would be visiting a dairy project and an agriculture project. To my dismay, when we arrived at the dairy project we were greeted by mostly senior citizens. They were happy to meet us, but unfortunately had not received any formal training or any business skills to run this co- operative successfully. The project had cost a little over R1 million, and I was very disappointed that the expensive equipment purchased to run this project was not even stored in an enclosed area but was rusted and ruined outside. The same applied to the agriculture co-operative. An irrigation system had been installed but not even one seedling had been planted. These are but two of the projects the department has sponsored that are not sustainable and from which the beneficiaries are unfortunately not benefiting because of poor planning and training.
We need to empower and train more people to get involved in the South African economy to allow higher incomes, higher investments, higher savings and higher tax revenues. This will in turn allow us to have more resources with which to make sure that our communities are successful and are assisted at every possible opportunity to be responsible for their own lives and for making the co-operatives a success.
Regarding the industrial development zones, and specifically the O R Tambo International Airport programme, proper consultation must be done broadly in the Gauteng province to allow as many people as possible to participate in the job opportunities that this project holds.
More jobs need to be created for the people of South Africa, especially the youth. We need experienced people to mentor our youth. Skills development programmes must take place throughout all sectors to allow our youth to be developed. The youth wage subsidy must be implemented to allow our youth to gain valuable experience in the workplace. The longer the youth wage subsidy is delayed, the longer our youth will be unemployed.
Subprogramme 4 contains an allocation of R487,8 million. This programme has a staff complement of 49 and is responsible for industrial competiveness in developing policies. Part of the function of this programme is to strengthen the manufacturing sector in the creation of decent jobs and to increase competiveness in domestic and export markets.
The department must explore how to use the old buildings in downtown Johannesburg and many other buildings in South Africa that used to be utilised for manufacturing clothing, textiles, footwear and leather. If we did this we could restore and maintain our beautiful old buildings and the department would save millions that would have been spent on the construction of new buildings.
One of the department's objectives is to contribute to the direct and indirect creation of decent jobs. We must not compromise on standards and quality assurance in the creation of jobs. I am pleased that the department will focus on production incentive schemes, in terms of which clothing, textiles, footwear and leather will be priority industries, benefiting from R2,1 billion over the MTEF period.
The National Development Plan can work if properly implemented, allowing more people to be employed and live a better life. When people are employed, they can improve their living conditions and live a healthier life.
In conclusion, I would like to quote Minister Trevor Manuel:
To make meaningful, rapid and sustained progress in reducing poverty and inequality over the next two decades, South Africa needs to write a new story.
Now is the time to write that story. Siyabonga. [Thank you.]