Date: 31/03/2009

Source: Democratic Alliance

Title: DA: Zille: Extract of a speech by the leader of the DA in Atlantis, Western Cape

South Africa is on the brink of a jobs bloodbath in the automotive, mining, clothing and textiles industries, and the government doesn't know what to do about it. It still doesn't have a plan to deal with the effects of the global economic crisis on these sectors, because the Department of Trade and Industry cannot come up with ideas, Nedlac keeps missing its deadlines, and the Finance Ministry doesn't unequivocally support a rescue package. So while the government dithers, South Africans are losing their jobs. But the DA has a plan to save jobs and stimulate economic recovery.

Between 200 000 and 300 000 people stand to lose their jobs this year, on top of the more than 112 000 people who have been laid off since November last year. Experts predict that the unemployment rate could rise by 3%. Instead of providing solutions and an action-plan, the government is keeping those sectors in need of a bailout waiting. They have been put on hold. Instead of engaging them, the government is picking fights. That is why the Finance Minister, Trevor Manuel, dismissively told the motoring industry: "You cannot have a lottery, with the loudest voice getting the most money".

It's not just the motoring industry that has been hit hard. The global economic crisis is the latest crisis to hit the textile industry, which has been in decline for over a decade. Today I met with workers from a textile factory in Atlantis. The factory they worked in was forced to close on Friday after 40 years in operation. Some of the workers have managed to secure work in Cape Town for another month, but after that they will be unemployed. They will not be able to support their families. And their outlook is bleak, because the opportunities in Atlantis are becoming fewer and fewer. Over the last few years, one factory after another has closed its doors.

In the face of surging Chinese imports, production has stagnated and the output value of textile products has fallen. This crisis has been directly caused by the government's contradictory policies. The government has implemented a trade liberalisation programme far more ambitious and rapid than the World Trade Organisation requires. At the same time, it has forced firms to resist the downward pressure on wages that a more competitive market exerts, and has implemented ultra-protectionist and unnecessarily complex labour laws. These pose a direct threat to the viability of textile firms in the global market and have compelled them to reduce their labour force. The result is increased job losses.

More people in Atlantis are out of work than in work. And when employment goes down, crime goes up. The murder rate here is thought to be among the highest in the country. The same gangs that terrorise the Cape Flats are roaming the streets of this community. Tik is everywhere.

What Atlantis needs is a plan for real and sweeping change-a plan that is comprehensive, a plan that lays the foundation for a better future.

The DA-led City of Cape Town is spending a great deal of time and money in delivering services to the people of Atlantis, so that they can improve their lives. The City's 2008/9 Budget provides for serviced plots for 500 RDP houses in Atlantis, for people earning less than R 3 500 per month. The City has also freed up land for housing: the City recently sold 120 individual plots in Beacon Hill and Atlantis to families in the "GAP" market.

The City is fighting crime in Atlantis. The Metro Police's Narcotics Bureau is investigating the drug problem so that the City can kick out the drug lords. And we are stimulating investment through the creation of the Atlantis Growth Corridor. Over the last two years we have sold 30 plots of land to investors for industrial development. We believe that this will drive growth and create 3 000 new jobs.

But our mandate is limited in local government. To truly turn Atlantis around, and to put our plan for sweeping change into action, the DA needs to be in government at provincial and national level. This will allow us to implement our four-point turnaround plan, which will help the textile workers I met earlier today, and the people of Atlantis as a whole:

Invest in transport infrastructure

Atlantis is not very far from Cape Town. But the lack of proper transport has left the people of Atlantis in isolation.

It is difficult and expensive for residents of Atlantis to commute to the places where they work or where they are looking for work.

There are rail lines that connect Atlantis to Cape Town, but these are only used for goods, not people. And even these rail lines are falling into disuse and disrepair.

The DA has a transport policy that will address the needs of the people of Atlantis. We will use state resources to make massive new investments in improving and upgrading both roads and railways. We will rehabilitate and expand the railway infrastructure so that passengers and freight can both reach Cape Town in the south and Saldanha in the north.

We will also allow those who are registered as unemployed to travel free on subsidised public transport during off-peak hours. That will allow thousands of people in Atlantis and the surrounding areas to seek work without having to pay hundreds of rands a week to do so.

Develop Export Processing Zones to create labour-intensive jobs

The path to economic growth and job creation in Atlantis must involve creating special conditions that will encourage businesses and factories to move to the area.

The DA will create Export Processing Zones (EPZs) in Atlantis. In these zones, labour-intensive businesses will be able to operate free from many of the taxes and regulations that they normally face. Through partnerships between government and industry, EPZs will be able to create thousands and thousands of new jobs.

EPZs in Mauritius, Nigeria, Vietnam and China, among other countries, have proven to expand production and provide employment opportunities to unskilled workers.

Introduce a wage subsidy and promote skills development to increase productivity

The provision of a government-funded wage subsidy will significantly lower the cost of hiring labour. We will encourage employers to hire first-time jobseekers by subsidising their wages for a specific period to enable them to gain experience and demonstrate what they are capable of doing.

We will also focus on up-skilling workers to increase productivity. The DA will provide incentives to small, medium and large employers to invest in the productivity of their workers. A substantial component of improved productivity is on-the- job training. Therefore it is imperative to get as many people as we can working in jobs where their individual productivity can improve.

The current SETA system is costly, wasteful, overly bureaucratic and largely ineffective. One of the failings of the system is that it permits bureaucrats, rather than employers, to identify the skills that businesses need.

The DA regards the skills development levy as a tax on employment. We will allow employers to claim back the money that they spend on training employees from the skills development levy. This will encourage businesses to take on unemployed people and up-skill them.

Introduce specific measures for the textile industry

The DA will protect the textile industry from competing foreign firms that are guilty of unfair trade practices by invoking World Trade Organisation safeguards against dumping.

And we will overhaul the Customs & Excise division of the South African Revenue Service to ensure that it begins properly to enforce the imports of Chinese clothing and textiles. For too long this division has allowed illegal and under-invoiced imports to flood our market.

Our plan will go a long way to saving jobs, creating new jobs, and boosting the textile and other labour-intensive sectors in Atlantis.

The people of Atlantis and the Western Cape have a real choice in this election. A vote for the DA is a vote for new ideas-for more jobs, and for less crime. A vote for the DA is a vote for real change. A vote for the ANC is a vote for more crime and less work. The DA offers the people of Atlantis real change. We offer the people of the Western Cape real solutions that work. We offer real hope for a better Atlantis, for a better Western Cape, and for a better South Africa.