Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi. (Photo: Gallo Images / Fani Mahuntsi) 
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s push to make jobs provided by the government a central plank of his electoral campaign is likely to have major consequences and could backfire.
There can be no doubting the sheer depth of our youth unemployment crisis. Depending on which figure you look at, at least 62% of South Africa’s young people (aged 15-24) are not working and not studying.
Despite the pain, anger and sheer heartache this causes, it is striking how rarely politicians talk about it.
The minister of labour and employment, Thulas Nxesi, is almost silent on the issue despite the impassioned pleas of everyone else, including unions, which represent the employed.
Despite campaign promises and broad claims that there will be “structural reform”, the real reason unemployment is not discussed by every politician every single waking hour is they … do not actually have any solutions.
It is certainly an extremely difficult problem. The education system which has betrayed young people shows few signs of improvement; 82% of our Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning.
This is not just about South Africa, but the entire region. Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho and Mozambique also suffer high unemployment across all age groups, making this a transfrontier problem.
There is a reason that so many people come to South Africa from other countries: they believe there is actually a better chance of a job here than at home.
Bucking the trend
Lesufi appears to be going against the trend of politicians remaining silent about unemployment.
He has held regular events at stadiums in Soweto, where people are given letters appointing them as solar panel technicians (as part of a bigger renewable energy roll-out programme), “crime wardens” and litter pickers. Presumably, other categories are on the way.
Lesufi says he is using budgeted funds from his provincial government to pay for these jobs. He insists that the provincial government has the money, as it has made savings in other areas.
But it is obvious that the scale of the problem will make it impossible for the government to fund this in the longer term. The people who pay the already high taxes are voting with their feet by going to other countries, and the remaining taxbase is dwarfed by the number of people who are not in formal employment.
While perhaps more than a million young people will apply for these jobs — so great is their desperation — the majority will not come away from these events employed.
Despite that, the aspiration of this, the promise that people may get a job may well encourage Lesufi to continue down this path.
He will also be able to claim in elections that he and his government are actually trying to do something, while other politicians avoid the issue.
This type of measure is strikingly close to the ancient Roman promise of “bread and circuses” to keep people happy. But, in the longer run, considering these jobs will surely be unsustainable, it keeps voters happy only temporarily and at a crushing cost to the fiscus.
It is also clear that Lesufi’s message, of a provincial government trying to employ young people, has created an important resonance wave.
The fact EFF leader Julius Malema has targeted this programme so regularly is proof of that.
Malema said at the EFF’s 10th birthday celebration: “When we take over this Gauteng next year, all those people who were hired by Panyaza, we’re going to expel all of them because they were not properly hired … They are hired because they are members of the ANC, they are hired because they are campaigners of the ANC.”
Malema has provided no evidence to back this claim, and if there was proof that these young people are ANC members, it would have entered the public domain.
But Malema clearly believes this poses a threat to his own populist attempts to court young people’s votes. He may believe that if they are working for the province they will be unlikely to vote against the party in power.
For Lesufi, there are many risks to this.
He has made a point of addressing the young people looking for jobs during these events. By doing this he signals that this is his initiative. He may well be hoping that those who get jobs believe he is personally responsible, even though their salaries are paid by the provincial government from state funds. And he will be hoping to receive political credit in the form of votes.
This inherently politicises the process, allowing Malema to make his accusations.
The majority of young people going to these events will leave empty-handed and this could lead to an ugly incident.
As far back as 2011, the advertising of unskilled jobs led to a stampede involving 10,000 people in Bloemfontein — and the desperation will be greater now.
It is also possible that the young people who don’t receive jobs, and their families, will just see this as another betrayal by the government, and turn their backs on the ANC and Lesufi.
Inadequately trained ‘crime wardens’
Some of the jobs on offer are problematic.
One of Lesufi’s first big promises was the appointment of “crime wardens” in Gauteng. They are given a uniform and often a gun to fight crime after receiving only two months of training, which means they are likely to be exposed to dangerous situations without adequate training. Considering there was virtually no vetting, some may also end up being accused of abusing their power, including their handling of firearms.
Already the Gauteng Department of Community Safety has had to deny claims that the crew of the Moja Love television programme Sizok’thola was guided to the home of a drug dealer by patrollers. The alleged dealer, Robert Varrie, died during this incident.
Similar troubling episodes are likely to occur in the future. These may well be blamed on Lesufi on the basis that he would have ultimate responsibility for the employment programme.
However, considering how important this issue is, and considering the relative silence of other politicians, Lesufi will be hoping to become the only visible political champion of the unemployed, to practically own the field that is so important to so many.
If he succeeds in this, he may be well rewarded with votes. It will be interesting to see if any other politicians follow his lead and try to beat him at a game in which he is currently the only player. DM