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The IFP in KwaZulu-Natal has lambasted the ANC-led government for failing to
deliver on its job creation promises.

"Twenty years into democracy we can't say we have a good story to tell as
people don't have jobs and are living in poverty. Fact is, many people are
unemployed, including young people and our streets are full of unemployed
and educated people who don’t know where to utilise their education and
acquired skills. When the ANC was canvassing for votes, many jobs were
promised to the unemployed youth. But now after taking power, they reversed
their promises on job creation and tell our young people to create jobs for
themselves through entrepreneurship. One wonders how you can promise people
non-existent jobs? Was this merely bait to hook the voters?" said IFP Leader
in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, Mr Blessed Gwala, MPL.

"The ANC relies only on temporary expanded public works jobs to bolster
employment figures. By continuing to rely on the Expanded Public Works
Programme to create jobs that last only a few weeks or months will create
neither the number of permanent new jobs that we need, nor the quality of
job opportunities that are urgently needed to lift poor South Africans out
of the cycle of poverty. The ANC must create decent, sustainable jobs not
temporary jobs. Labour brokers must be abolished because we don’t want our
people to be exploited," continued Mr Gwala.

"To grow our country’s economy and create jobs, the IFP is determined to
balance job creation and job protection by revising labour laws to allow for
more flexibility. This will generate investment, create new jobs and promote
growth in the economy. We will take politics out of the economy – union
politics should not hold our economic future at ransom. We will partner with
the mining and related sectors to refine raw materials in South Africa and
develop our processing and manufacturing industries to produce finished
products on our soil instead of importing products manufactured abroad with
our raw materials. To do this we will develop skills suitable for today’s
job market by sourcing funds for training programmes, apprenticeships and
learnerships – this vision will ensure skills transfer and create
sustainable jobs which will in turn grow our economy," concluded Mr Gwala.

Issued by the IFP