COSATU General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi's, input to a meeting with French President Nicholas Sarkozy, Cannes, France, 2 November 2011
I am a trade unionist from South Africa a country with the highest rate of unemployment when compared to other middle-income countries. South Africa is currently a country with highest rate of inequalities, with 50% of its citizens living in poverty.
I come from the richest continent in terms of mineral wealth yet the poorest continent where 59.9% of Sub Saharan citizens live on less than $1US a day. The recession of 2008/9 has simply worsened this situation and the current threat of a double recession spells disaster to the citizens of my country and continent.
Employment creation must be placed at the centre of macro-economic policies and fiscal policy must be adjusted to support growth and employment creation. We are arguing that another bout of recession must not be at the expense of the working class and the poor. We do not want to see a further decline in the labour share in the GDP of nations or a rising Gini co-efficient during the recovery phase.
We are worried that many countries have adopted austerity measures that have simply meant deepening of inequalities, poverty and unemployment. Our governments continue to use the G20 to justify why they are not shifting policies. The IMF, with its one-sided assessments, is also not assisting in this regard.
Many emerging markets and developing countries continue to operate under the yoke of inflation-targeting. They believe that whatever the consequence for job-creation and industrial development, as long as inflation is down all is fine. They continue to refuse to change. We appeal that government must target employment creation, poverty reduction and elimination of inequalities within and between nations of the world.