My heart goes out to country’s unemployed

WHEN I drive along Prince George Drive in the morning, I am saddened by the sight of a long row of men sitting or standing patiently in the hope of being selected to do a day’s work. Some have paint rollers on long handles and some hold spirit levels to indicate they are painters or bricklayers.

I see similar lines of hopeful people on the roadside near Kommetjie and in Lakeside on the road past the golf club. I guess there are lines of job-seeking men along many of the Cape’s other roads.

I always wonder how many of them actually manage to get a day’s work. I suspect that many wait in vain and go home to their families empty-handed at the day’s end. My heart goes out to them.

I watched a news item on television this week in which it was stated that not enough was being done to transform the country’s businesses.

An unacceptably large percentage of top management positions and directorships are still in the hands of white males, the news bulletin stated. This will have to change.

Well, that may well be true, but in most big companies the senior managers and directors probably account for about 2% of the total workforce. Maybe 3% of the company is top-heavy.

So even if all the directorships in the country are transformed and all the top management positions are given to the neglected sector, will this have any effect on the thousands of men standing in hope, every day on the roadsides of South Africa? Not a lot. I believe the angry call for transformation is a smokescreen to hide the fact that it is ordinary labourers – bricklayers, painters, diggers, tea ladies, launderers, wheelbarrow pushers, gardeners, window washers and cleaners – who need to be employed. In most cases board members are simply an unproductive drain on finances.

A handful of elite over-paid company directors won’t make any significant difference to the unemployed masses.

What we need is an atmosphere where it is easy and profitable for enterprising people to start businesses without too much political pressure or too many restrictive labour laws.

We need people to have official encouragement to start businesses without having to bribe officials to issue permits and licences.

We need a financial situation where it makes sense for overseas investors to come to our country to set up factories and businesses. They are unlikely to invest in a country whose economy is officially “junk”.

I believe each of us can do more for the well-being of the country by paying a car guard a few bucks to wave his arms in the car park than the government can do by creating a few new company directors.

At least the car guard will be able to feed his children at the end of the day.

Last Laugh

A customer in an Italian restaurant in Cape Town called the chef and complimented him on the meal.

“It was excellent,” he said. “In fact the Parmesan cheese was even better than the Parmesan I tasted in Rome.”

“I’m not surprised sir,” said the chef. “You see, in Rome they use local Parmesan. We use imported Parmesan.”