Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille is proud of the the city's expanded public works
programme (EPWP). Unfortunately, EPWPs
are desperate, subsistence and very short-duration efforts to create
income for unemployed beneficiaries. Its like plugging a leaking dam
with a finger.
Over-staffed municipalities and over-paid municipal workers can do the work more efficiently. In other words, taxpayers are paying twice - EPWP and permanent employees - for the same service. (In fact, this what they are already doing for other services - security, health, education etc.)
During an interview on CapeTalk on January 13 De Lille said jobs were created, but avoided saying how effective, across the board, the programmes are in creating long term jobs. If she did she would reveal the number of permanent jobs created - posts or wage bill - pro-rata across all programmes.
There
are a multiplicity of reasons for the country's low-job situation.
Perhaps the most important one is we don't make much the world, or we
ourselves, want. We import the bulk of what we consume, including
machines used in manufacturing. Manufacturing is 12% of GDP,
about half where it was in the 1970s, and this is where jobs and wealth
are created.
We can't compete in specialised areas like financial services (London, New York), IT and technology (US, South Korea, Europe, Japan), etc, so what can we do?
Government and business seem to have no idea, and can't follow, say, little Mauritius' or Singapore's example or Korea and Taiwan of 20 or 30 years ago in diversifying and using our comparative advantage, being complacent to now that South Africa is a resource-rich country. But those days are over.
And when we have a minor advantage, for example, natural beauty, low-value currency and sophisticated economy, they make a mess of it with crazy visa and investment legislation that is scaring potential investors. Is it any wonder that East and Central Africa received more foreign direct investment than South Africa, "Africa's most industrialised country".
Poor Patricia is so proud of their achievement. But it costs a lot, is uneconomical (increasing the wage bill, which is pushing up government debt), an inefficient use of resources, and importantly, has little medium to long-term impact on the city and beneficiaries.
EPWPs are a form of the dole, actually, and will not reduce long-term unemployment and poverty or improve skills. To be effective in its modest aims of lifting people out of unemployment and poverty it must employ people a lot longer than the typically few weeks to a six months for the bulk of beneficiaries, which is where it is at the moment.
Over-staffed municipalities and over-paid municipal workers can do the work more efficiently. In other words, taxpayers are paying twice - EPWP and permanent employees - for the same service. (In fact, this what they are already doing for other services - security, health, education etc.)
During an interview on CapeTalk on January 13 De Lille said jobs were created, but avoided saying how effective, across the board, the programmes are in creating long term jobs. If she did she would reveal the number of permanent jobs created - posts or wage bill - pro-rata across all programmes.
We can't compete in specialised areas like financial services (London, New York), IT and technology (US, South Korea, Europe, Japan), etc, so what can we do?
Government and business seem to have no idea, and can't follow, say, little Mauritius' or Singapore's example or Korea and Taiwan of 20 or 30 years ago in diversifying and using our comparative advantage, being complacent to now that South Africa is a resource-rich country. But those days are over.
And when we have a minor advantage, for example, natural beauty, low-value currency and sophisticated economy, they make a mess of it with crazy visa and investment legislation that is scaring potential investors. Is it any wonder that East and Central Africa received more foreign direct investment than South Africa, "Africa's most industrialised country".
Poor Patricia is so proud of their achievement. But it costs a lot, is uneconomical (increasing the wage bill, which is pushing up government debt), an inefficient use of resources, and importantly, has little medium to long-term impact on the city and beneficiaries.
EPWPs are a form of the dole, actually, and will not reduce long-term unemployment and poverty or improve skills. To be effective in its modest aims of lifting people out of unemployment and poverty it must employ people a lot longer than the typically few weeks to a six months for the bulk of beneficiaries, which is where it is at the moment.
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