Mohamed Ameen Dabhelia – 2016/05/11

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) says unemployment in the country has risen to 26.7% in the first quarter of this year with the number of people without jobs rising by 521 000 to 5.71 million.

Speaking to Radio Islam on Sabahul Muslim today, labour analyst Loane Sharp says the figures are alarming.

“The worrying factor is looking at the number of people who have given up hope of finding work, plus people who cannot find work who are looking for it, which is very worrying”.

Sharpe says South Africa has close to 8 million people in the unemployed category and with additional legislation that’s going to be passed – making the national minimum wage R 4500, this could dramatically raise the unemployment rate as workers earning below R 4500 become vulnerable.

Sharpe says that the country’s economy is weak; however a lot of what is happening in the unemployment picture is in our own hands and in our own control.

“It is a catastrophe, nearly 8 million people are idle, and a large part of that is a result of misguided economic policies”.

He says the nonexistent presence of the African National Congress largely attributes to the rise of unemployment as 90% of the senior office bearers in the ANC come from the tripartite alliance.

“Trade union this and Communist that, these two groups have a specific ideology, which has allowed them to take over leadership in the ANC, and they’ve brought the ideology into economic policy which consists of the minimum wage, unrealistic wage increases and bargaining councils which have been captured by trade unions and the Department of Labour”.

Experts are predicting that by the end of this year the country will see a further 285 000 job losses and next year a further 400 000 South Africans will be without jobs.

Twitter: @thedabhelia

(Edited by Faizel Patel)