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Cape Town - Scrap the department of labour and replace it with a department of employment to shift the focus from labour legislation to job creation, says Woolworths [JSE:WHL] non-executive chair Simon Susman.
He spoke at a Leader’s Angle presentation at the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB) in Bellville.
Lowest income
Susman referred to SA’s “outstanding national success story”, namely the fact that the country is moving away from a poverty figure of 67% in 2001 to an expectant 31% in 2015.
“This truly the miracle of South Africa, but I don’t hear it often enough – not even from government ministers,” he said.
Referring to the importance of job creation, Susman said the focus should be on introducing SA’s lowest income groups (LSM 1- 4) into the job market.
According to him, the country’s "crazy" labour legislation “unfortunately prevents millions from getting jobs”.
“You’re not going to change (Microsoft boss) Bill Gates (or South African billionaires) Christo Wiese or Patrice Motsepe from being rich, but you have to get the bottom (of society) to have work,” he said.
Name change
“We know that the National Development Plan is prioritising job creation and it would be a very positive step if role-players such as government, business and unions can find more common ground on the issue of creating employment opportunities,” said USB Associate Professor Marius Ungerer.
Ungerer said job creation is a multi-facet challenge and a simple name change may seem too modest a solution.
“Employment is the end-result we all want. By starting to focus our attention on more people in jobs we will make a small, but significant step in the right direction,” he said.
