Zakhele Mthembu appeared on Newzroom Afrika to discuss South Africa’s onerous labour regulations.
We need urgent action to get unemployed South Africans into the job market.
As decent people we need to respect the dignity, agency, and responsibility of individuals, which must mean that we allow those individuals to falter, to bind themselves to less-than-ideal agreements, and to fail in their endeavours.
Onerous minimum conditions of employment, such as the compulsory minimum wage, or other regulatory conditions imposed on employers, all serve to consign women and young people in South Africa, in large numbers, to the ranks of the long-term unemployed.
Government’s responsibility is to create an environment that will increase employment opportunities, reduce unemployment, and reduce poverty.
The finance minister’s sense of fiscal responsibility is welcome, but wholly insufficient given the scale of the crisis.
The solution indeed lies in deregulation and limiting the state’s role in people’s economic affairs.
Some realpolitik and Machiavellian manoeuvring might be necessary for us to transcend the artificial barrier that has been constructed in the road to a flourishing future.
This article was first published by BizNews on 5 October 2023 The behaviour of some members of Parliament and other office-bearers in government leaves the observer with
The corporatist state is the biggest threat to individual liberty that has emerged since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
