In the context of dire social and economic prognosis, including the extraordinary high rate of unemployment, one cannot argue job seekers, including the skilled, are easily finding employment.
Over the past year two organisations - one large and one small - that bothered to tell me I didn't make their short lists, said they received hundreds of applications from "highly qualified" people. This does not indicate so-called critical skills are scarce.
Therefore, I wonder where this economic activity is, this surge of output where scarce skills are in demand and are indispensable, the shortage of which is harming the country’s and province’s economic prospects. What prospects? Isn’t it more accurate that with the economic and political situations being what they are, there is no new work?
South Africa is socially and economically dysfunctional with no sign of improvement. The government has interfered in almost every aspect of the economy, deterring investors, growth and job creation.
People want everything for nothing and don’t want to work. How is it that refugee foreign informal traders can make a living when locals in the same communities cannot? How is it that countries that faced far worse conditions than we did in 1994, over the same period, managed to grow their economies?
The cause of our predicament is a failure to have a vision and strategic plan and willingness and ability to persevere with it. Instead we have opted for failed ideology and misguided short-term solutions.
Wesgro's Tim Harris, Western Cape economic opportunities MEC Alan Winde and others assert the alleged skills shortage is harming the Western Cape’s economic potential and visas must be granted to foreigners to bridge the shortfall.
In January 2015 Wesgro invited applications for the vacant chief executive post. It attracted 199 applications. This is a good number for any post and excellent for a chief executive. It means 199 highly qualified people – people Winde and Harris said do not exist - are available and ready to take up an exclusive post.
In the end, did a foreigner get the job? No, Harris, the DA’s and Winde’s candidate and cadre, Tim Harris, did.
Updated 30 April 2016.
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