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In July 2014, Statistics South Africa reported in its Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) the record high of unemployment in South Africa. According to the aforementioned report, the unemployment rate rose by 0.3% from a rate of 25.2% in the first quarter of the same year to 25.5% effectively meaning that an estimated 5.2-million South Africans were jobless.
The unemployment rate is also influenced by retrenchments in some sectors like manufacturing, construction, transport as well as slow to stagnant absorption rate in the job market. The third quarter of 2014 according to Statistics South Africa showed a significant shrinking in the formal jobs particularly in non-agricultural employment which shed about 129 000 jobs from 8,67 million in June 2014 to 8,54 million in September 2014. More importantly Levinsohn (2007) purports that unemployment contributes to social ills life without purposes, which to a certain extent pushes people to delinquency, prostitution and alcohol abuse.
Bearing in mind the socio-economic factors which affect job prospects such as race, gender and geography, municipalities most importantly the metros ought to think beyond the box and create employment which in turn will contribute to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). According to Kingdon and Knight (2000) state that geography plays a substantial role in job opportunities for example, those in peripheral areas are more disadvantaged to find work than their counterparts in urban areas because of fewer job prospects in rural than in urban areas.
Furthermore, the manifestation of unemployment among women is apparent compared to men. The aggregated number of unemployed in South Africa is women proving that unemployment largely shows the women’s face. The same authors also assert that a White person has better prospect for employment than an African person - this is due to obvious historical facts of pre-democracy in South Africa.
On the other and municipalities are losing millions of revenue in the form of water loss which includes leakages, aging infrastructure, malfunctioning sewage system, illegal connections, etc. To correct this challenge, municipalities have an essential responsibility to employ a proportionate number of skilled and semi-skilled people to identify leakages, malfunctioning sewage system and aging infrastructure as well as illegal connections and vandalism to the infrastructure. Since South Africa is a water scarce country, it is imperative that Municipalities invest in human resources to monitor these and fix where fixing is required. In 2014, the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs reported that an estimated 37% of water is lost through leaking taps alone. It further stated that these water leakages cost the state about R7 billion annually. Other associated costs which are not captured are those of burst pipes, broken communal taps, malfunctioning sewage, illegal connections, vandalised and aging infrastructure.
The water loss presents municipalities with an opportune opportunity to save water while at the same time mitigating the high levels of unemployment.
The other great opportunity for municipalities to create sizeable real job opportunities is enforcing bylaws which seem not be enforced particularly in shops owned by foreign nationals in major cities where complete appreciation of hygiene is compromised. In this regard, the Departments of Health and Labour including Municipalities have specific rules and regulations on health, safety and environment particularly on food hygiene. To protect public health, municipalities are the ideal sphere of government as custodians of licences to proactively recruit people in hundreds to physically monitor the adherence to set laws.
The Consumer Protection Act, 2008, (No 68 of 2008) sets out the minimum requirements to ensure adequate consumer protection in South Africa. This Act constitutes an overarching framework for consumer protection, and all other laws which provides for consumer protection. To this end, Municipalities have the responsibility to employ hundreds of people to monitor how the retailers, shops and various service providers serve the consumers. For example in many foreign owned businesses in major cities there is signage that reads NO RETURN, NO REFUND AND NO EXCHANGE. T
his is the contravention of this listed Act which is promulgated to protect the public. In effecting the Act, municipalities should employ hundreds of people to ensure that consumers are protected and that the business sector is complying with the set legislation. It is my conviction that the listed challenges presents municipalities with an opportune opportunity to substantially create real jobs for hundreds of unemployed South Africans.
Moses Mncwabe works as a researcher in Cape Town. He has interest in community development, corporate social development and servant-hood.
References
Kingdon, G. and Knight, J. (2000) The Incidence of Unemployment in South Africa [Internet] Available at: http://www.tips.org.za/files/384.pdf [Accessed on 12 January 2015].
Levinsohn, J. (2007) Two Policies to Alleviate Unemployment in South Africa [Internet] Available at: http://levinsohn.commons.yale.edu/files/2010/10/Policies_SA.pdf [Accessed on 12 January 2015].
SAICA (2015) Consumer Protection Act, 2008, (No 68 of 2008) [Internet] Available at:https://www.saica.co.za/Technical/LegalandGovernance/Legislation/ConsumerProtectionAct/tabid/1911/language/en-ZA/Default.aspx [Accessed on 12 January 2015].
Statistic South Africa (2014) Quarterly Labour Force Survey Quarter 2, 2014. [Internet] Available at: http://beta2.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0211/P02112ndQuarter2014.pdf [Accessed on 12 January 2015].
