The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes the rescue of 23 young South Africans who were trafficked to Myanmar under the pretence they would be working in call centres and in hospitality in Thailand. This must serve as an urgent signal for the need for the South African economy to create jobs, particularly for the youth.
South Africa's unemployment rate is a staggering 41.6%, but for youth aged between 15 and 24 years the unemployment rate is more than 70%. This helps explains the circumstances of how the 23 youngsters were lured with job offers but landed up living and working in slave-like conditions, forced to scam people online, while only allowed toilet breaks.
It should be national shame that our young people unwittingly walked into modern slavery because they could not find jobs in the country of their birth and fell into this trap because they were offered a plane ticket and promised a stipend. Three of the youths are reported to have been there for three years before they were rescued when Myanmar authorities raided the premises of their forced labour.
It is no exaggeration to say job creation must be a top priority for the 7th administration. This incident is a painful reminder that government needs to move with speed to capacitate the state, fix the State-Owned Enterprises, invest in infrastructure and stimulate growth. It is also critical that government pass the budget in April as per legislative framework to ensure the state fulfils its constitutional obligations including providing public services and paying social grants.
COSATU has been firm in its stance against the proposed VAT hike because the poor and the working class will be the hardest hit; but the Federation has welcomed progressive provisions including the additional R8.8 billion allocation for Public Employment Programmes and R22 billion from the Unemployment Insurance Fund for job creation programmes. This will go a long way towards reducing the dangerously high rate of youth unemployment.
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The Federation will be pushing for urgent engagements at Nedlac on how to revamp Public Employment Programmes to ensure participants receive the training and experience needed to find permanent work on exit, and explore pooling together the various funding options, reducing corruption and wastage, and ensure participants are paid the National Minimum Wage.
The R3 billion allocated to ensure the missing middle can access support for tertiary education will assist young people secure future opportunities. It must be accompanied by a clean-up of NSFAS and an inflation adjustment to its threshold.
The Federation commends the Department of International Relations and Cooperation for ensuring the safe return of the 23 trafficked youths but urges government to waste no time in stimulating the economy to create badly needed jobs.
