BRONWYN NORTJE: Old ideas of a 'proper job' hold back SA's potential
Those concerned don't even really seem to know what a job is, let alone how to create one
I am often reminded of an apocryphal tale about the golfer Ernie Els's grandmother, after he won the 1994 US Open at just 24 years of age. Asked by a journalist how his family felt about the historic win, he responded with characteristic candour: "They are obviously all very proud of me, but my gran keeps asking when I'm going to get a proper job!" As senior representatives of business, labour and the government met at the jobs summit last week to "develop practical initiatives to create employment for millions of South Africans", I couldn't help feeling that they - like Ernie's dear grandmother - had missed the point. If you have missed it, SA has a long and spectacularly bad history when it comes to job creation initiatives. We're never going to create the 13-million jobs by 2030 as promised by the National Development Plan when we can't even stop the economy from shedding the few jobs we already have. The problem is that there is a rapidly widening gulf between what is happening ...
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