By Umamah Bakharia
President Cyril Ramaphosa hit all the right notes in his State Of the Nation Adress (SONA), his sixth since being sworn in as president. He announced that plans are in place to lift the State of Disaster and also extended the Social Relief Grant until March next year.
The President also acknowledged that State Capture did take place and that it had a devastating effect on the country, but especially on the poorest and the most vulnerable. He announced a slay of plans to boost the economy and address unemployment.
University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Social Development in Africa, Professor Lauren Graham spoke to Radio Islam on a post SONA analysis.
“The focus on economic recovery is crucial but alongside that is the youth unemployment and the grants,” says Professor Graham.
She expresses that the R350 unemployment grant that will continue for another year, is a positive development.
“This will give us time to look at evidence, to understand what is going to be affordable for the country and long structural unemployment.”
In the SONA address, Ramaphosa said that government will begin to embark on a widespread campaign to cut the red tape and improve the ease of doing business.
“If we do make those processors easier, it does make it much easier for businesses to do the work they need to do and claim the subsidies that will help them to employ young people,” says Professor Graham.
In response to what she thought stood out from the presidents SONA, Professor Graham says: “He did emphasize a number of things that are already happening and so we were not having to look into a crystal ball to see whether it will happen.”
Such as to decrease unemployment in the country: the educational assistant program that has created 800 000 employment work opportunities and the sayouth.mobi platform that has young job seekers up on it.
She argues that the approach by the government towards unemployment is not enough as there cannot be one intervention like economic growth to help eliminate the unemployment crisis in South Africa. And adds that ‘public employment’ is a crucial step to create a new demand.
“When he talks about the efforts that he has already made and extending those efforts, it gives me hope,” says Professor Graham.
0 Comments