Joblessness haunts SA 10yrs on

2004-02-26 09:46

Cape Town - Cassius Maseti, 37, is dirty, tired and hungry and embodies post-apartheid South Africa's failure to effectively tackle unemployment, which unofficial figures say could be as high as 40 percent.

Maseti, dressed in a dirty T-shirt and torn trousers, is despondent as he recounts his travails in a park outside South Africa's parliament in Cape Town.

"I have tried and tried, but all I was able to get was short work as a labourer. If you do not have a matric (matriculation) certificate or a university degree, then no one will employ you," he says.

Joblessness has become a hurdle for the African National Congress (ANC) government, in power since the the first multiracial elections were held in April 1994.

According to the latest government figures, about 5.3 million people, or 31.2% of economically active citizens in South Africa - most of them black - do not hold jobs.

Unofficial figures suggest it could be as high as 40 percent.

A recent survey by state broadcaster SABC found that 90% of 3 500 respondents interviewed were highly concerned about unemployment.

Opposition parties say the ruling party's failure to create jobs has caused an unusually high crime rate.

The South African Police Service annual report said that 47.4 murders were committed per 100 000 people between April 2002 and March 2003, or a total of 21 230.

The ANC has fended off criticism, saying it inherited an unbalanced, racially-skewed economy when it took charge in 1994, and that much had been done to reduce poverty and create jobs.

"The economy in 1994 was in an advanced state of decline," Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin, a member of the ANC, told journalists recently.

"In terms of human development, the weakness in the economy resulted in declining living standards, high levels of racial inequality as well as high levels of poverty," he said.

When the ANC came to power under then president Nelson Mandela in 1994, it began to plough funds into areas that were neglected by the apartheid government and to uplift the lot of blacks and the so-called "coloureds" who faced decades of oppression and were economically marginalised.

According to figures in South Africa's 2004 budget, 1.6 million houses and 700 new clinics have been built since 1994, a further nine million people have access to water, four million homes have electricity and school pupil numbers have grown by 1.5 million to 12 million.

The government also introduced empowerment initiatives such as the Mining Charter, which calls for 26 percent of mines to be black-owned in 10 years, and the Financial Services Charter, which wants a quarter of the sector black-owned by 2010, to rectify the anomalies.

Ben Smit, a professor of economic at the Univesity of Stellenbosch, said the most distinguishing characteristic of the past 10 years had been the government's ability to maintain a stable economy, while coping with enormous social challenges.

- AFP