Sadly, Moegammad Nackerdien and Derek Yu’s insights on the job crisis that has been worsening for the past 25 years (Business Report, April 15) fail to touch on the chief underlying cause of unemployment.
Like so many others who have attempted to discuss this subject, they tip-toe around the elephant in the room. Inflexible, restrictive labour legislation along with unbridled union influence constitute the greatest stumbling block to the expansion of the job market.
Race-based policies which coerce businesses to prioritise skin pigmentation ahead of competence, serve only to limit employment opportunities on the grounds that once hired, the difficulties posed in dismissing personnel discourage an open approach to employment.
Then there is the Byzantine thicket of regulations regarding B-BBEE. Independent research by Moeletsi Mbeki and John Kane-Berman of the Institute of Race Relations has shown that B-BBEE has not only failed to reverse the unemployment trend but that it has added up to 30% more in costs for tendering with B-BBEE compliant businesses, enriched an elite to an obscene degree and discouraged foreign direct investment.
It’s time academics like Nackerdien and Yu extended their thinking beyond the economically stifling parameters in which the ANC government has bound our economy. Only by abolishing the above-noted strictures will the crisis of unemployment be eased.
Sent into The Business Report and published, 16 April 2019.
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