It is a fact that unemployment in South Africa is a crisis; more than 15 million people are out of work. Yes, the unemployed in South Africa can’t breathe; the suffocation is unbearable. They can’t breathe because of draconian employment policies that unfairly discriminate against them.
The unemployed cannot breathe because they are not allowed to negotiate terms of employment and wages with potential employers. The unemployed cannot breathe because the national minimum wage policy suffocates them. This policy is the nail in the coffin for the unemployed.
The South African Human Rights Commission, which we thought was created to protect people’s rights, ignores the complaints of the unemployed. The unemployed want the rights of unemployed people to be protected.
We are pleading with those in a position of authority to at least protect the constitutional rights of unemployed people. We want to work and earn something to bring home to our families. Even a very low salary will help restore dignity to those who now have no hope.
We had a meeting in 2019 with the senior officials in the office of the Vice President, DD Mabuza. Since that meeting, we have not heard anything and have received no responses to our emails.
We have met several business owners who agree with us, but are afraid to support us because they could be seen as not complying with existing laws.
We are law abiding citizens and the support we require is to be assisted to achieve our goal, which is that unemployed people should be exempted from labor policies and for that a job seekers exemption certificate must be presented.
The certificate should release us from the shackles of labor laws and allow us to enter into agreements with any employer we choose, at any salary and under any conditions we are willing to agree to. It is our life and our work, and preventing us from making our own agreements with employers is wrong, unconstitutional, inhumane and illegal.
How can a government legally make millions of its country’s citizens unemployed by legally blocking employers from employing them at wages and under conditions where the unemployed are prepared to work, to earn something rather than nothing?
We are rejected by the political parties that are represented in parliament and they expect us to vote for them. This shows that unemployed people are alone. We can’t breathe and the laws of the land are against us. We cannot breathe for those we trust.
Apparently, the only thing that is good for the unemployed, according to those sitting in parliament, is a grant that is as much per month as the deputies spend on a single lunch or dinner.
It was a dark Christmas that has just passed, and the new year will not be prosperous as long as the unemployed cannot breathe.
How long must the unemployed endure suffocation, what else can we do to attract the attention of the authorities? The only weapon in the hands of the unemployed are numbers. We will have to mobilize all the unemployed. We appeal to all those who care about the unemployed to help us with all the resources at your disposal to get all the unemployed, if possible, to work.
Imagine if the millions of South Africans who are unemployed were now working. The boost to the economy would be enormous and criminal activities would be a fraction of what they are now.
The American economist Thomas Sowell said that what unemployed South Africans have come to understand after their bitter experiences is: “The real minimum wage is zero.”
Any employer or concerned South African who speaks out about allowing the unemployed to make their own decisions about their own working life is accused of wanting “slave labour”. Until people are prepared to help the unemployed by offering them jobs where they can pay and are prepared to speak out against the stupidity of people who say that low wages are “slave labour”, this problem will not go away.
Politicians cannot be trusted, they are only in government for themselves, their families and their friends. Perhaps the time has come for the unemployed to rule the country for the benefit of all the people of South Africa.
Xolile Mpini is the executive director of the Langberg Unemployed Forum.
Opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect official policy or the position of the mail and guardian.
