Latest figures show failure of jobs summit
For those aged 25-34, double the rate of the middle-aged
Predictably, the government's jobs summit, which was launched with much fanfare last year, has yielded little fruit.Trade unions, the most ardent supporters of the initiative, are beginning to vent their disappointment in the wake of the worst unemployment figures in more than a decade, released this week. Sceptics of the summit, staged in Midrand in October last year, and of some of its less-than-realistic resolutions probably feel vindicated in an "I told you so" kind of way. Following news that the unemployment rate had swelled to 29% in the second quarter of this year, Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla criticised the government, saying it was clear it had no plan. By promising only 2-million jobs over a decade, when SA has the highest unemployment rate worldwide, the country's leaders had admitted defeat, he said. An equally frustrated Zwelinzima Vavi, the general secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions, said unions had made endless petitions to the go...
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