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Today President Zuma must announce the following interventions as the core of the government's new approach to job creation:

Wage Subsidies to lower the cost of employment, and
Opportunity Vouchers to give young South Africans access to work and skills development

For a decade, these highly effective and politically achievable interventions to address the jobs crisis have been put advocated by the DA (Detailed in Section 1.3 of the DA's Economic Policy - available here.) Their time has come.

Every other half-baked, ideologically constrained jobs initiative announced by this administration and the last has had no effect on chronic unemployment. Today more than 5.9 million South Africans are unable to find work.

A comprehensive solution to our jobs crisis should also include a review of labour market regulation to lower the non-wage of labour and reform of labour legislation to reduce rigidities in real wages. This would create hundreds of thousands of jobs, almost overnight.

South Africa has waited long enough for a practical solution to the jobs crisis. In the past year 870 000 jobs were lost, even as President Zuma was promising 500 000 new job opportunities. To make such promise last year, without a comprehensive plan to make it happen was highly irresponsible.

Today the President has a chance to make another promise on jobs. If he backs it with these innovative new interventions he will keep his promise, and finally start addressing our national unemployment crisis.