Herman Mashaba's 'solution' to unemployment crisis: 'Vote the ANC out'

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has weighed in on SA's unemployment rate reaching a new record high in the second quarter.

This week, Stats SA revealed that the unemployment rate had reached 34.4% in the second quarter of 2021, up from 32.6% in the first quarter.

The statistics agency found that the number of unemployed people was 7.82-million in the three months to the end of June, compared with 7.24-million in the previous three months.

The rate was the highest since the quarterly labour force survey began in 2008. According to an expanded definition, unemployment includes those discouraged from seeking work.

In a statement entitled “Vote the ANC out to give residents jobs”, Mashaba said the stats demonstrated the need for better leadership to “save the almost 12-million South Africans without jobs, and without the hope of finding a job”.

He said the figures were proof of the ANC government’s failure to address the drivers of unemployment in the country, such as “rigid labour laws that appease the tripartite alliance partners at the expense of the millions of unemployed South Africans”.

Mashaba said the ruling party also failed to address long-term policy uncertainty and “double-speak”, which generated declining levels of business confidence, and did not do enough to curb corruption among officials and politicians.

“Worst still, the recent acts of violent looting and insurrection, resulting in the destruction of property and countless businesses is set to exacerbate the future economic outlook of our country,” he said.

“The people of SA bear the suffering of the failures of our government, and this is why ActionSA is clear that the first step to getting SA working must be the unseating of the ANC.

“The unseating of the ANC must not only happen at a national government level in 2024 but now, at a local government level as well. The decline of jobs in Johannesburg, SA’s economic hub, is a clear indication that the ANC administration is failing our residents across the board.”

Mashaba said the ruling party was paralysed by factionalism and weak leadership, adding that the unseating of the party was critical because the greatest challenges in SA could only be addressed when the ANC had been consigned to the opposition benches.