In his third State of the Nation Address( SONA) President Cyril Ramaphosa promised the unemployed masses 2 million jobs. As the Assembly of the Unemployed (AoU) we want to note that this is inadequate in dealing with mass unemployment in South Africa.  10 million of us are unemployed, 2 million jobs by 2030 will mean that 8 million of us will remain unemployed. This is not even counting the millions more who will be added to our ranks in the next 10 years.

 
South Africa needs a radical approach to dealing with unemployment, unfortunately the President has given us more of the same. To decisively deal with unemployment, poverty and inequality the AoU proposes the implementation of the Right to Work with a living wage and basic income for all.
 
We argue that the government must aggressively pursue a state-led, labour intensive infrastructure programme, focused on building quality public housing. This will not only create jobs directly, but will also stimulate a number of downstream industries and create decent work and house the unemployed. The private sector also needs to be held to account and the super-exploitation of workers in the private sector must end. We demand the immediate introduction of a 35-hour work week with no loss of pay so as to create employment for the more than 10 million who are unemployed.
 
Ramaphosa also identified Expanded Public Works Programme as a means to increase employment. If the president is serious about fighting poverty and inequality he must reverse this proposal. As the AoU we say the government must absorb EPWP workers into municipalities and pay them a living wage instead of the mockery of R11 an hour.
 
If the president is serious about fighting unemployment, poverty and inequality he must also meet the following demands:  free public transport for those without the means, food security for all, a move toward climate jobs, free basic services, an end to labour broking, debt cancelation for the poor, free decolonised education, freeing the means of communication.
 
The 2019 quarter 1 unemployment and GDP figures show that South Africa needs decisive action on matters of the economy. Unfortunately Ramaphosa’s SONA offered us empty promises we need radical action to deal with the scourge of unemployment, inequality and poverty.
 
Amandla Ngawethu Ngenkani!

Issued by Abahlali baseMjondolo