Thomas Johnson - The Blog

The following explanation for South Africa's persistently high unemployment was posted on Reddit/AskSocialScience substack by a University of Cape Town MPhil PPE student. It's one of the more cogent I've encountered and unlike the trite reasons offered by government, media and mainstream analysts: This is a bit of a simplification, but essentially, the problem boils down to one of labour absorption: the private sector in SA is too small to employ the entire South African labour force.  The reason for this can be traced back to the early development of the South African economy, specifically during the colonial and subsequent Apartheid era.  Early industry in SA (here meaning mining) was developed around the exploitation of African labour, which was used as a readily available source of cheap labour to man a labour-intensive industry. Subsequent government policy largely backed this approach, setting up institutions like the homelands system as a means to provide a ready sou...

 The DA has repeatedly claimed that through their sole efforts they're creating jobs in the Western Cape, and, therefore, unemployment is the lowest in the country. The latest is Western Cape MEC for finance and economic opportunities Mireille Wenger (March 23) and Premier Alan Winde.  Both also mention, compared to nationally, the WC has a higher quality of life (HDI) and lower inequality - a negligibly lower Gini is purportedly proof of their success (note it's their success, not the people's who make the region what it is). Several years ago various DA members including then leader Mmusi Maimane and finance spokesman Geordin Hill-Lewis claimed the DA in the WC "created" between 400,000 and 600,000 "new jobs [sic]" (the number varied depending on the person speaking) between 2009 and 2019. They used either the official or expanded (discouraged jobseeker) unemployment rates, whichever was favourable to their interpretation of unemployment numbers. Incid...

Unemployed doctor Sunhera Sukdeo writes in Daily Maverick that she's unable to find work. She displays proudful entitlement that because she's a doctor and worked hard for it, she ought to have a job, and a government post at that.  Sukdeo is just one of 7.8 million unemployed people in the country, not including discouraged jobseekers, and among about 10% unemployed graduates and other tertiary, also a large number. However, 800 unemployed doctors is negligible to absolute and relative (healthcare workers only) employment rates and against the number of registered doctors in the country - 46 000 (2019).  Two years ago my GP's daughter, a newly qualified neurologist (master's degree UCT) couldn't find a government job - they weren't hiring. So she opened her own practice or joined an existing one. This does take money but nowhere is it stated government must employ any and all jobseekers. Already government employs far too many people placing a huge strain - 32...

Finance minister Enoch Godongwana said pay increases for government workers contributed to the finance crisis. The SACP said workers mustn't be blamed though. (Elsewhere, they accused Western "imperialism" for petrol price increases, absolving their sponsor, Russia, as an oil and gas producer that tried to blackmail Europe.) He was was worried how about paying for the emergency Social Relief Distress aka Covid-19 Grant of R350. Government workers are the new elite. Under Zuma their numbers increased half a million to 2.7 million. They're a third of all employed people. For 30 years they've received above-inflation increases. They, including cabinet and executive, earn 20-30% more than private sector workers for similar posts.  The ANC doesn't care, though. They say people - their people, cadres - must eat. And they are ensured voter support from the extraordinarily large numbers of grant recipients. The public sector is overpaid, overstaffed, underemployed an...