The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) says that, rather than being “gravely concerned” at the latest wave of retrenchments hitting South Africa’s economy, Employment and Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth “should be ashamed”.
Meth spoke of her concern earlier this week in light of closures and cutbacks at ArcelorMittal SA, Ford Motor Company SA, Goodyear, and others.
In a statement, the IRR notes that she “spoke of interventions such as R417-million in UIF payouts, yet admitted these expensive and desperate measures were not stemming the tide of job destruction”.
“The reality is that Minister Meth has no right to be concerned – she should be ashamed.
“The jobs crisis she now laments is the direct and inevitable consequence of policies that she and her party have championed for years. The ANC’s commitment over many years to central planning, coercive labour laws, minimum wage mandates, and race-based hiring targets has steadily strangled opportunity, shut out entrepreneurs, and driven both investors and employers away.”
The IRR points out that, for well over a decade, it has warned that these anti-growth, anti-jobs measures would lead to exactly this outcome. Here are just some of the many times we raised the alarm:
- “SA must face impact of minimum wage on jobs” – News24
- “Urgent need for labour law reforms to combat rising unemployment” – Daily Maverick
- “EEA will only lead to more job losses” – IRR
- “Minimum wage in an era of joblessness” – Financial Mail
- “SA labour must stop pricing itself out of the global market” – IOL
- “There’s a hole in the job bucket” – IRR media release
- “Draft Employment Equity regulations threaten jobs” – IRR
The IRR’s internationally recognised Blueprint for Growth policy papers, including Generating Jobs and Skills for Prosperity and Growth and Breaking the BEE Barrier to Growth, have spelt out the reforms that could turn this tide: freeing up the labour market, rewarding merit, lowering barriers to entry, and encouraging investment. Governments in the past have ignored these solutions at every turn. This deliberate antagonism to job-creating, pro-growth policies is something South Africans can no longer afford.
Says Hermann Pretorius, IRR head of strategic communications: “Minister Meth’s sudden alarm is theatre. These job losses are not a shock – they are the bill coming due for years of fake transformation and economic sabotage. Instead of crocodile tears, she owes South Africans an apology for defending policies that made it harder to hire, harder to grow, and harder to compete. In fact, she owes South Africans an urgent pro-growth policy pivot.”
The IRR calls on the Government of National Unity to break with failed ANC dogma by:
- Scrapping BEE and demographic quotas that scare off investment
- Halting further minimum wage hikes that lock out the poor and unskilled
- Reforming dismissal laws and bargaining councils to unleash labour-intensive sectors, and
- Putting growth, enterprise, and consumers at the centre of labour policy
Adds Pretorius: “Unemployment is not an unforeseeable, magical consequence of fate. It is the product of bad policy. And until those policies are dismantled, no amount of ministerial concern, state intervention, masterplans, or UIF bailouts will create the jobs South Africa so urgently needs.”
[Image: Frantisek Krejci from Pixabay]