LETTER: Shallow thinking about job creation

Your article on youth unemployment explored the current ANC thinking that we need thousands more entrepreneurs, conveniently taking the responsibility for job creation away from government and placing it with the private sector (“Address the realities of unemployment, not just the numbers”, July 6).

By “entrepreneur” people usually mean someone who can successfully run a business. I haven’t read much about what kind of businesses our unfortunate youth are supposed to start. In most societies the number of people with the drive and ambition to go it alone is a fraction of 1%. I don’t think SA is any different.

Of those who do take the plunge most open the shop, put up the sign, and then go broke. If you stopped an average 20-something job seeker and asked what a fixed and variable cost was, or the difference between a mark up and margin on sale, you’d probably be met with a blank stare. Without some basic skills starting a business is a failure waiting to happen.

Then of course there’s the tricky question of who exactly is going to do the work. The greatest failure of this government is the neglect of basic technical training because they don’t understand that eventually someone with a tool has to make something or get it to work.

Bernard Benson 
Parklands

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