Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma's announcement of a R9 billion fund for job creation over a period of three years has received the thumbs-up from the private sector and the general public.
Labour consultant and analyst from Tony Healy and Associates, Tony Healy, told BuaNews that the announcement was good news for the country. "The fund will bring some relief to the unemployed. However, government still needs to work very hard to address the problem of unemployment the country is facing."
According to Healy, government still needs to work on the labour laws to make them more flexible.
"The country is currently experiencing a high rate of unemployment and more still needs to be done," he added.
The announcement comes at a time when the country's unemployment rate had dropped slightly in the final quarter of 2010 - dropping from 25.3 percent in last year's third quarter to 24 percent.
As part of job creation, all government departments are expected to align their programmes to job creation.
Government launched phase 2 of the Expanded Public Works Programme aimed at creating more job opportunities for South Africans in 2009.
In his State of the Nation Address delivered in Cape Town last night, President Zuma said more South Africans have decent employment opportunities.
According to Zuma, the New Growth Path will guide SA in achieving the goals of job creation, working within the premise that the creation of decent work is at the centre of the country's economic policies.
Government had already introduced initiatives such as the New Growth Path aimed at creating about five million job opportunities by 2020 and bring unemployment rate down to 15 percent.
To Simon Thabethe, 47, an unemployed father of three from Soshanguve, the announcement has brought some hope that one day he will get employed. "This is indeed good news for people like me who are not working," he said.
His sentiments were shared by 49-year-old John Mulele from Hammanskraal, who has been unemployed for the past eight years. Since his retrenchment as a driver, he has not been able to find employment again.
"If people get employed, this will reduce the rate of poverty and crime. It is government's responsibility to take care of the poor and to unsure that those that are not working are employed," he said.
In line with the New Growth Path, Zuma said six priority areas would be targeted in a bid to create more jobs, namely: infrastructure development, agriculture, mining and beneficiation, manufacturing, the green economy and tourism.
The R9-billion jobs fund would finance new job-creation initiatives over a three-year period and would be complemented by an amount of R10 billion to be set aside by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) over the next five years for investment in projects with high job-creation potential.
