Leader of Build One South Africa (Bosa), Mmusi Maimane, unveils the party’s manifesto in Johannesburg on Sunday with its unique offering to South Africans ahead of this year’s elections. Photo: Nigel Sibanda
With South Africa’s unemployment rate standing at 31% in the third quarter of last year, Build One South Africa (Bosa) president Mmusi Maimane on Sunday launched the party’s jobs plan – its manifesto ahead of this year’s elections.
He painted a bleak picture of the country’s poor who were struggling to make ends meet, put food on the table, educate and clothe their children.
Maimane said South Africans were “lucky to have a job… while 11 million of our neighbours who don’t have a job, lose hope of finding one”.
“We sit with the highest youth unemployment in the world while corrupt politicians find new ways every day to steal, break and bend the rules for their own benefit.
“Our nation’s spirit is broken. We are robbed of dignity – dignity to have meaningful work, dignity to put food on the table.
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“So many men in our country are stripped of their responsibility to provide for their family as they hustle to find any job… We live in two different countries – two different worlds,” he said.
“Every Monday morning, a train will leave from Soweto – boarded by mainly Africans – off to jobs that barely pay a living wage. At the same time, another train will leave from Sandton – clean, air-conditioned and costly – filled with wealthy South Africans off to meaningful work and well-paying jobs.”
He added: “Just last week I met a young man named Xolani not too far from here in Snake Park.
“He is 21 and has struggled for three years to find work. He holds a matric, but his marks were not great. Passing some subjects at 30% and 40%, he is ineligible for further study. He lives with his disabled grandmother who receives substandard healthcare at the local clinic.
“He lives in an area in which crime and violence are rampant, and which receives little basic services from an inefficient government.
“What are his options? Is a life of criminality in the streets his destiny?” asked Maimane.
“This cannot be our story. That is why this year’s elections matter. They matter for Xolani, they matter for you. They matter for us all.
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“This election will be important as we move away from voting along racial, ethnic, religious, gender or tribal lines. This is the story of our past, which has created and maintained a divided and deeply unequal society.
“Those who want to mobilise people on the basis of such immutable features cannot and do not have a vision to unite and build one South Africa.
“I am convinced that the fastest and surest way to build South Africa is to create more jobs.”
Maimane said the elections were “about one thing: How do we put a job in every home”.
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