Major concerns with Ramaphosa’s job-creation lie
President Ramaphosa made some bold promises during the ANC’s manifesto launch but Ramaphosa’s job-creation lie has sparked concern.
Ahead of South African general elections to be held on Wednesday 29 May 2024, Mzansi’s 31.9% unemployment rate is perhaps its most pressing problem. Delivering the African National Congress (ANC) election manifesto last weekend at the Moses Mabhida stadium, President Cyril Ramaphosa promised he would create 2.5-million jobs over the next five years, reports Times Live. However, the truth behind Ramaphosa’s job-creation lie is the fact that government should stop trying to do it all themselves, reports Daily Investor, and rather enable the private sector to handle job creation.
RAMAPHOSA’S JOB-CREATION LIE
To be fair, Ramaphosa’s job-creation lie has been perpetrated by others in the run-up to elections. Build One South Africa (BOSA) leader, Mmusi Maimane, promised 2-million jobs over the next five years. Politicians may hit all the right notes with statements like these, but there’s often scant detail on how these millions of jobs will materialise in a severely contracted economy.
Daily Investor reminds us that Ramaphosa’s job-creation lie is not a new one in South African politics. Back in 2011, former President Jacob Zuma promised to 5-million jobs over ten years. His grand plan failed spectacularly during his tenure. Similarly, President Cyril Ramaphosa committed R100 billion to a job-creation stimulus package as the COVID-19 pandemic hit in April 2020.
LEAVE JOBS TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR
Consequently, job creation should not be within the government’s remit. Government should rather empower the private sector to grow the economy and create employment, says economist Professor Thomas Sowell. “The government creates no wealth. Ignoring that fact enables politicians to claim to be able to do all sorts of miraculous things they cannot do,” says Sowell.
Another way to think of it is this. A government can only gather wealth through taxation, selling bonds, or imposing mandates. Simply put, this is wealth transference, not creation. And it’s certainly not job creation. Moreover, since the inception of state capture in South Africa in 2008, this wealth transfer often goes from an efficient private sector … into an incompetent, and corrupt public sector.
2025 AND BEYOND
Furthermore, the ANC has decided to tax the rich and large corporations to fund these job-creation schemes and social grants. However, South Africa’s tax base is shrinking (7.1 million), while the number of people on social welfare is only increasing (28 million). As a result, South Africa continues to suffer from slow economic growth, high unemployment. And the same repeating promises like Ramaphosa’s job-creation lie.