Ramaphosa lauded for admitting business is the dynamo

Experts say it was about time President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged that government cannot create jobs, as its role was to create conditions that will enable the private sector to grow and hire more people.

Econometrix chief economist Dr Azar Jammine said the fact that government has been promising to create millions of jobs, which never happened, was proof that its method was not working and it was time for change.

“The proof is in the pudding, government cannot create jobs, while whether the private sector will gain enough confidence from Ramaphosa’s Sona is open to be seen,” he said.

“There’s a lot of scepticism that because of failure in the past, why should he succeed this time? The answer is if the private sector were to take it to heart now, then we could start seeing more job creation.”

However, Jammine said the promises were unclear, as the ANC had lost a lot of credibility in recent years and so investments which were required to create jobs were just not forthcoming the way they ought to be.

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“The reality is government does not create jobs. Jobs are created naturally by businesses that have ideas on how to survive, how to make money and the bigger they get, the more they have to employ people to cover the work for them,” he added.

Looking forward to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s maiden budget speech this month, the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) welcomed the announcement that infrastructure spend was central to the country’s economic recovery.

“We are encouraged by the focus on the Steel Master Plan which is ultimately aimed and increasing production, capacity and the creation of jobs in the metals and engineering sector,” Seifa said.

The federation said announcements aimed at reviewing labour market regulations for smaller businesses to enable them to hire more people, while protecting workers’ rights were long overdue. One South Africa (OSA) Movement leader Mmusi Maimane said although the president signalled all the right things, the ruling party and the state does not have the capability and, therefore, naturally young people were on their own.

“My issue is you have to educate our young people so that they are employable, we have to ensure that we have a venture capital so that they can start their businesses,” the OSA leader said.

“I’m saying unless we’re able to take a central focus at job creation and to be able to say everything that we do must create jobs, we are still going to struggle.”

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Meanwhile Seifsa’s Nuraan Ali said the focus should be localisation, designation and buying South African without compromising on cost and quality. Priority areas were accelerating economic recovery and implementing economic reforms to create sustainable jobs.

“Seifsa applauds the president for acknowledging that government does not create jobs. Job creation is a byproduct of economic growth, generated by business,” Ali said.

“Seifsa is at one with the president that government’s role is to create the conditions that will enable the private sector to grow and hire more people.