Johannesburg - The political message in the country needs to change and be more reflective of the development issues facing the population, says Statistician General Pali Lehohla.
Lehohla said data showed that, to be responsive to unemployment issues, South Africa needs to look at schooling, but this was not the message that citizens gave to politicians during the local government elections.
“We ran a survey just before the local government elections. The people we surveyed told us about the need for water and electricity. And when the politicians canvassed for votes during the local government elections, they mimicked what South Africans want,” said Lehohla at the opening of the Global Entrepreneurship Week in Joburg on Friday.
The reason for the growing student protests for free education were largely driven by the need for the need to fix the education system so that broader employment issues could be fixed, said Lehohla.
“The 15 to 34 year olds are saying we need skills and that is the message we need to give to our political system so that we are responsive to that. They say the driver of their poverty are skills,” said Lehohla.
While addressing hundreds of delegates at the Global Entrepreneurship Week opening, Lehohla also touched on the impact of small businesses and said many in the informal sector were pushed by their tough economic circumstances into opening businesses and not because they were entrepreneurs.
The Minister of Small Business Development Lindiwe Zulu said she was concerned by small business owners in the townships not being given opportunities to trade with bigger distribution companies.
“I call this an economic apartheid, why don’t distributors want to go to the township? And help grow those opportunities,” said Zulu.
The global conference starts on Monday with various entrepreneurs engaging and sharing ideas on how to build entrepreneurs that succeed.
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