Education will be the key
The article by Gilad Isaacs ( On My Mind August 25-31), which highlights the debate taking place between the camps at Wits University and UCT on the issue of a national minimum wage, refers. This is only of academic interest, because at present the market is swamped with the unemployed seeking work.
In an economic upturn the issue of a minimum wage might have merit, yet in the arguments put forward by Isaacs of Wits and Haroon Bhorat of UCT there is no mention of the need for a greater level of productivity to justify higher earnings.
The labour force in SA has a reputation of being slothful and poorly motivated, and are unionised and strike-prone, so the future looks gloomy anyway. While “piece work” might be anathema to the unions, it will certainly give a measure of how much a worker is worth and even motivate him to increase his skills and income.
Regrettably, unskilled workers will always be at the lower end of the scale of earners because they have little to offer other than manual labour, so education is the key to upliftment.