We can increase job creation only if government butts out

It would be safe to say that the national government has a role to play in job creation by creating an environment conducive for the business community to create jobs.

The ANC-led government, unfortunately, has not created an environment conducive to job creation and the new government is going to have a long road to travel to ensure that the environment is corrected and replaced with a more conducive one.

It was John F Kennedy who said: “When we got into office, the thing that surprised me the most was that things were as bad as we’d been saying they were.” In essence, a new government coming into office in 2024 has a particularly difficult job.

The Western Cape provincial government has proven to be a government that creates an environment conducive to job creation. Likewise, the City of Cape Town has paved the groundwork for job creation and is producing results that have improved job creation year on year.

It is important to run a clean, efficient and well-structured government to enable job creation. It is not sustainable to continue with the same government policies that we’ve seen for the past 30 years. The policies have led us into a desperate situation where almost 50% of South Africans can’t find a job. It is therefore trite to state that the government does not create sustainable jobs. It also trite to state that small business is the engine room for job creation throughout the world.