Johannesburg - In spite of high-level interventions between the government and the country’s top chief executives, the economy is continuing to shed jobs.
According to StatsSA, 15 000 people were retrenched in the first quarter of this year in the formal non-agricultural economy – a situation the country’s largest union federations say is beyond crisis proportions.
“The latest report by the quarterly employment survey is a sign that South Africa has yet to heed the siren calls warning of the societal consequences of unemployment and retrenchments.
“This also signals that all social partners are still in denial about the extent of the crisis,” Cosatu spokesman Sizwe Pamla said on Monday.
Evidence of the continued job destruction in the economy will raise the political pressure on the government for the comprehensive social security plan that it has been promising for more than a decade.
Government negotiators in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) undertook to have a draft plan ready for discussion by the end of last month, but nothing has been made public.
The latest figures belie the bullish posture of government ministers and the country’s chief executives over the state of the economy and their collective ability to kickstart growth. The jobs figures may also undo the work of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and others to preserve South Africa’s precarious investment grade, which hovers just above junk status.
President Jacob Zuma and his economic ministers have had a number of crisis meetings with business, and one with labour.
While all parties claim to be singing from the same hymn book, claiming they are doing all they can to boost economic growth, the federations have questioned how committed they really are.
“The piecemeal approach that has been adopted by the government, in particular, to deal with the ongoing retrenchments and the rhetorical preambles and slogans that have been offered as policy responses to unemployment are far from being adequate.
“We need a bold and decisive collective response to the crisis of this magnitude,” said Pamla.
Federation of Unions of SA general secretary Dennis George said his federation appreciated that a task team had been formed comprising four cabinet ministers and six labour leaders to develop urgent short and medium-term measures to be adopted at an upcoming jobs summit. However, this was not enough.
“Fedusa believes it remains important to approach these matters with a very proactive stance to ensure that job-stimulating drivers, economic enablers and cost-cutting interventions remain the order of the day to improve economic growth and increase job creation,” said George.
As part of efforts to stop job losses, Cosatu has urged workers to soften their stance on wage negotiations and balance salary adjustment demands with job security.
“We expect that better-paid employees could settle for wage increases that are in line with inflation,” said Pamla.