Manufacturing stimulus is vital for job creation in SA
There’s no need for new special economic zones with settled areas such as Vaal Triangle available, writes André de Ruyter
Statistics SA said on Tuesday that unemployment was 26.5% in the last quarter of 2016. There had been a small fall in the total, with 44,000 new manufacturing jobs. However, the jobless number is still far too high. Many young people have given up looking for work. From any number of perspectives, this is a crisis, and deserving of every bit of effort and attention that we as a country can throw at solving this problem. Jobs cannot be created by legislation, however. They can only be created through growing our economy. And the employment opportunities we want are decent jobs that will contribute to social stability and cohesion through meaningful participation in the formal economy. These jobs can be created in the manufacturing sector, which at the moment is idling at 13% of GDP instead of revving at 30%, where comparative studies suggest SA should be performing for our stage of economic development. If we could lift manufacturing output so that it does, indeed, account for 30% of...
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