TACKLE SA’S CRUSHING UNEMPLOYMENT

I’D LIKE to commend Sol Makgabutlane for raising the alarm on one of South Africa’s most pressing issues: joblessness (The Star, Editor’s Note, September 19).

The impact of vast unemployment has dire consequences, not only in terms of the country’s social stability but also in the loss of honour, dignity and self-esteem for job hunters.

The desperation is evident in the statistics quoted by Makgabutlane: 65 000 applicants for 1 500 positions in one instance, and 47 000 applicants for 400 vacancies in another.

These are not mere stats, but human beings caught up in an economic environment which, as is well known, is driven by a corporate culture devoid of values such as compassion.

A culture that feeds on greed and profit at any cost. A culture that facilitates the flourishing of wealth accumulation by a handful of elites, which it unashamedly applauds while the gap between the connected chosen, with multitudes of jobless souls, grows.

While it is true that government, union and business are ultimately key role players in job creation, almost three decades since the dawn of democracy, opportunities for employment keep evaporating.

Unemployment is an albatross that threatens SA’s future, and unless creative ideas are sought, the majority of marginalised will remain in limbo. Executive Member: Media Review Network, Joburg

NIC BOTHMA EPA A JOBLESS man holds a rudimentary advertising board offering his services at a traffic intersection in Cape Town, in the desperate hope of getting work. |