Chairperson, hon Ministers, although statistics suggest it is impossible, the ACDP sincerely hopes that President Zuma's target of creating half a million jobs by the end of this year is realised. Of course the bulk of jobs envisioned will be realised through the public works initiative, and will therefore only relieve pressure for a period of time.
This will place workers back in a market which may not yet have recovered from recession or where economic recovery has a time lag in absorbing the unemployed and where fewer jobs are available due to automation. Utilisable skills development is therefore crucial if this sort of job creation is to be more than a flash in the pan.
The ACDP is therefore pleased to see the budget increase of about 150% in the Employment and Skills Development Services and Human Resources Development Programme. This should have a particular benefit to youth development and employment programmes.
In order to create good, honest work, more must be done to attract and encourage industries to relocate to South Africa from the wider global arena. Relocation incentives would have to include the necessary infrastructure and training facilities for relevant skills to facilitate these industries.
Employment creation efforts must be directed towards taking local and external labour-intensive factories to rural communities. This would help strengthen families by keeping breadwinners close to home; alleviate poverty; improve access to goods and services; and may actually draw people away from cities, helping restore the population balance which presently contributes to xenophobia and other antisocial behaviour as people are subjected to urban crush.
Growing concerns that attempts to ban labour brokers could seriously undermine job creation are backed by reports that the banning of labour brokers in Namibia resulted in 30% of all contractors losing their jobs.
Whilst we support legislation that protects workers and ensures an avenue of recourse, the ACDP does not condone risking hundreds of thousands of jobs. Surely we should regulate rather than ban.
Lastly, along with employment and the alleviation of poverty must come a national ethos of hard work. The ACDP would like to know what percentage of the budget is being spent on public campaigns to inspire and encourage this.
We look forward to the Minister's statement on amendments to the labour law. The ACDP will support this Vote.