The ANC has consistently battled to implement its jobs promises made during election seasons, with scepticism from labour and business over its new promise of 275,000 jobs annually for the next five years.
Ahead of the 2014 election, the ANC promised to create more than 250,000 jobs and 6-million job opportunities. Mere months after making this commitment, Statistics SA released employment data for the second quarter showing that unemployment reached its highest levels since 2008, at 25.5%.
In the ensuing five years, the employment situation did not improve, but in fact worsened, despite the party’s electoral commitment. Jobs data released towards the end of 2018 showed that unemployment stood at 27.5%.
At the weekend, the party made renewed promises on job creation. The data shows that despite the promises, job shedding far outpaced job creation.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s job summit in 2018 thrashed out the problem with business, labour and the government. But will the 80-page agreement emerging out of that summit be enough to improve the party’s dire track record on the jobs front?
Its labour ally Cosatu is hoping that a concrete plan for tackling unemployment will emerge from its January lekgotla, taking place at the weekend, at least to assist the government to deliver on its promise of 275,000 jobs in 2019.
Cosatu general-secretary Bheki Ntshalinsthali, in an interview with the Business Day, said there does not seem to be political will to resolve the impasse.
“We know what the issues are ... we know what to do, but it does not happen,” he said. “It is difficult to pinpoint one factor on why the ANC government has struggled to create jobs, but the question of implementation has historically been a big problem.”
There have been initiatives similar to the jobs summit — former president Jacob Zuma declared 2011 the year of “job creation”. The New Growth Path, in 2010, aimed to cut unemployment by 10 percentage points to 15%, but this too failed to materialise.
The outcomes of the jobs summit would also be of little use unless implemented, Ntshalintshali said.
He said it was critical for Ramaphosa to ensure that the right ministers were put in place to implement the party’s jobs plan. He said this was another failure in the past, which should be rectified.
The SA Federation of Trade Unions was not as generous.
“This ambition to create 275,000 annually is rather pathetic in the light of the challenges we face. It provides further evidence of stagnation ... from 2010 to 2018 an average of 300,000 jobs per annum were created or 2.6-million. But in the same period unemployment rose from 7.4-million to 9.5-million because of new entrants in the labour market, who were not absorbed,” the union said.
The federation said the ANC had reached a cul-de-sac and had resorted to making empty promises.
Business is also sceptical of the party’s target of 275,000 jobs a year for the next five years. Business Leadership SA’s Bonang Mohale said the target would remain unachievable as long as the party allowed an environment of hostility towards business.
According to its manifesto, the ANC plans to have 24-million people employed by 2030, an ambitious target it aims to achieve by creating 275,000 jobs every year.
“For as long as the ANC allows an environment where there is hostility against business, that target will remain unachievable," Mohale said.
ANC head of the presidency Zizi Kodwa said an election plan of action would be discussed at the lekgotla. He said the meeting would not “rewrite” the manifesto, but would look at how to realise the commitments it contains.
The outcome of the lekgotla would be further refined at the cabinet lekgotla and will inform Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address in February.
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