Dear Editor,
Deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi once said a “man’s freedom is lacking if somebody else controls what he needs, for need may result in man’s enslavement of man.” As South Africans we can learn something from these wise words.
Our government declared 2011 as the year of job creation! The finance minister acknowledged the growing problem of unemployment, and announced the setting aside of R25bn over the next six years to improve productivity and hopefully create jobs.
The government, media, opposition parties, lobby groups and people in general put too much emphasis on job creation.
When we grew up our parents told us to go to school and university so we could get good jobs.
Girls are encouraged to be good so they can get good husbands and live happily ever after. The emphasis is always about creating dependency on someone else. It has become part of our genes.
The only sustainable way of ensuring that majority of people are able to sustain themselves is to stimulate small scale economic activity where people live. Make the formation and running of small businesses simpler. Remove red tape and complicated paper work. Make unsecured funding easily available.
I’m talking about small loans for a rural woman to buy a few chickens and start selling eggs in her community; buy a sewing machine and start mending neighbours’ clothes; a small scale bakery to produce bread for the community; etc.
Let people take care and control of their own needs, and then they will start to experience real freedom.
Linds
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Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.