OPINION - We hear though the media that the government has thousands of job vacancies unfilled. From the breakdown, it is clear that the majority of these vacancies are for skilled people.
In South Africa, the majority of the unemployed are unskilled people or youth who have only their schooling behind them, and no work experience. They therefore don’t qualify for any of the vacancies.
For the majority of the pupils, their education is inadequate to prepare them for the future. The top tiers of government glamorise funds allocated to education and then wash their hands on a job well done, while the lower tiers, through unchecked corruption, filter these funds to all and sundry, except to the areas where the funds would benefit pupils.
Many experts say that most jobs are created through informal/small businesses. The government is at pains to handicap this sector, with rules that cost more to comply with, than the actual cost of the labour itself. The paperwork is enough to curb start-up businesses from flourishing.
The unskilled labour force of South Africa is also not blameless in the struggle to create jobs. They demand salaries that outweigh their benefit to the companies and then strike to enforce their demands.
They pay a portion of their wages to unions, who negotiate on their behalf but never reimburse workers for lost wages while they were on strike.
Companies need skilled people to succeed. Unfortunately, the people with the experience are emigrating. There is no handover in a lot of these cases and the companies suffer. Without a smooth handover of skills, standards drop and companies are doomed to fail.
Peter-John Roman Athlone