With unemployment recorded at nearly 30 per cent last year, it is time for an attitude change
“Without the private sector, markets and competitive markets, I don't think we have a chance of dealing with unemployment and poverty says Ann Bernstein executive director of the Centre for Development and Enterprise.
With unemployment recorded at just more than 28 per cent last year, it is time for an attitude change.
This was according to Ann Bernstein in a discussion during the Free Market Foundation’s latest instalment of the Free Marketeers virtual dialogue on 28 January. Hosted by the foundation’s Chris Hattingh, Bernstein and Hattingh discussed South Africa’s current and ever-growing unemployment crisis.
Bernstein is currently the executive director of the Centre for Development and Enterprise, an independent policy think tank which focuses on the country’s development issues, one of these being unemployment and the severity thereof.
According to Bernstein, one of the biggest and key challenges that is hindering the country’s unemployment rate, and ultimately poverty, is the lack of economic growth and the ever-growing fiscal crisis. She noted that the sooner people realised that unemployment relied on economic growth, the sooner we could work on improving our circumstances.
“It is truly appalling that [even] pre-Covid-19, South Africa is a country with growing inequality, enormous poverty and probably the world’s deepest unemployment crisis. A lot of people want to talk about unemployment and separate it from growth, you can’t do that because it is one of the reasons why we are not making progress.”
She added that the only way to improve economic growth was to adopt a change of mindset and attitude towards the private sector, markets and competitive markets – all of which are absolutely fundamental to improving growth.
“And until there is recognition that you can’t be anti-business and pro-growth, you can’t tell me that you want to deal with poverty and unemployment and you’re anti-business. South Africa is living proof of that.”
She said an alternative perspective would allow people to realise that economic growth was not necessarily about the money but rather the management of the value chain. “Without the private sector, markets and competitive markets, I don’t think we have a chance of dealing with unemployment and poverty.”
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https://www.citizen.co.za/sandton-chronicle/235056/free-market-foundation-director-proposes-possible-solution-to-unemployment/
https://www.citizen.co.za/sandton-chronicle/228193/free-market-foundation-honours-bonang-mohale-with-luminary-award/
