YCLSA Statement on Lindiwe Mazibuko's illusion on the Youth Wage Subsidy
The Young Communist League of South Africa [uFasimba] has been correctly proven yet again on the fact that the Democratic Alliance is nothing but a conservative neoliberal force of capital. Through its seemingly loudest Parliamentary Leader, Lindiwe Mazibuko, the DA made calls for a Youth Wage subsidy in response to the State of the Nation Address presented by the President of the Republic on the 9th February 2012.
The Youth Wage subsidy proposed under the false logic of exploitative neo-liberal consensus claims that youth unemployment will be decreased by this absurd proposal where the employers are paid to hire young people. The subsidy will only serve to create and consolidate a two-tier employment system that will further exploit and divide the wealth gap as more money will go to employers who use cheap labour that is subsidised by government to the detriment of formal labour.
Our decent work campaign is premised on the fact that not only job creation is a priority but the creation of sustainable adequate jobs that are humane and compliant to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the Labour Relations Act and other pieces of legislation which promote decent work and sustainable livelihoods.
Though not surprising, but we find it very interesting and mindboggling to hear a young person purported to represent the general populace speaking as an agent of capital and big business who will be the main beneficiaries of the so-called wage subsidy to the exclusion of all that will have no social protection or recourse even from the Constitution of the land.
We reiterate that a two-tier labour market will not be in the interests of the nation and will further aggravate the unemployment issue and alienate the youth that will enter the labour market from the current employees that are within the system. Big business and capital never support programmes that are aimed at improving the lives of the people and are solely focused on profit.
In this we would like to advise Ms Mazibuko and her DA to take a deep thought and do a proper working-class orientated research once in a lifetime so as to deepen their understanding on the historical and current dynamics that gave and still give rise to the current scourge of youth unemployment.
As the YCLSA, we will continue to encourage government in intensifying its resolve on ensuring that the principle of decent work guides all labour processes and that the state must continue to intervene in the economy so that it is able to generate opportunities for investment, entrepreneurship, skills development, job creation and sustainable livelihoods within the confines of a people's driven developmental state
Statement issued by Mangaliso Stalin Khonza, YCL National Spokesperson, February 15 2012
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