Youth wage subsidy launch in Western Cape

COSATU was surprised at the DA's claims that they have launched a wage subsidy in the Western Cape. This is an old activity that the DA launched in 2009, which it is now trying to dress up as a wage subsidy for propaganda purposes. In fact when it was initially launched it was heavily biased to giving DA young supporters jobs.

The DA knows that discussions are happening nationally in Parliament and in NEDLAC to ensure that the unintended consequences of substitutions or job displacement are avoided. They are party to some of these discussions and it is dishonest to present it as a fait accompli, just waiting to be implemented.

This is as dishonest as Lindiwe Mazibuko claims that President Zuma said COSATU was blocking it; this can be confirmed in Hansard. This just shows that the DA is not letting facts stand in the way of their desperate attempt to try and expand their electoral base, by appearing to be concerned about the huge sea of black youth unemployed.

With the last big restructuring of the economy, when outsourcing casualisation and Labour broking was introduced under the guise of more jobs, we saw the effect. This led to workers in jobs with decent wages and benefit funds being retrenched, and being replaced by casual workers earning lower wages, with no benefits. The only people who benefited then were the bosses as reflected by the rising profits and increased levels of inequality.  

The DA attempted to promote black on black violence through there March in JHB which showed a disregard for the safety and concerns of black people generally. This is then exacerbated in the Western Cape where they are taking money away from equalising educational resources between old white and black schools, so that all learners have the same resources, opportunities and prospects. This money is then spent on a few of the black kids who fall out of the dysfunctional education system, so they are prepared for jobs at the lower end of the Labour Market.  

The real problem in the Western Cape is the growing levels of inequality, which is a systemic impediment to economic growth and development. This inequalities are however as a direct result of the apartheid generational advantage to whites that the DA is committed to defending.  So instead of addressing the real challenges, the DA tries to tell the Western Cape population that the cause of the poverty problem is other poor black people, in their trade Unions.

This is in spite of the fact that workers share up to 17% of their wages in remittance with unemployed workers and their families. The wealthy DA members in Constantia and Zille herself has no unemployed family members who she supports with her nearly R2 Million salary, neither does she support any of the poor black workers whose interest she claims to champion in a systemic way.  

COSATU Western Cape dismisses the DA launch of a Wage subsidy in the Western Cape as a gimmick to make political millage and one that workers have seen through As COSATU we are committed to creating jobs for the millions of our brothers and sisters , both young and old, black and white. And one of the ways of doing it is to make the society more equal, by redistributing some of the apartheid grand theft, to all the people in this Province. If there is to be the fight that Premier Zille is promoting, let the fight at least be around the real issues that plague our Province, inequality , poverty and unemployment and greed and its excesses.

Statement issued by COSATU Western Cape Provincial Secretary, Tony Ehrenreich, May 21 2012

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