On #JobCreation :

The problem is SA in a country where collective thinking & logical truth centers on the idea of “job creation.” So we measure the creation and the eradication of jobs. But, (and I have long since said this) jobs are an OUTCOME, not an INPUT.

So the economy has shed over 237, 000 in the first quarter of the year. Beyond the PR hype of the investment summit (and the professional conference delegates attendees that rush for their seat in the odour of power), little of that capital has translated into the real economy.

So remove the seasonality of the data (overstated 4th quarter numbers based on temporary employment in retail & services) what is left is that construction and finance are the main drivers of the bleeding. This is to be expected and here is why:

1. our government over the past decade has consistently elected to cut capital instead of current spending. So rather than spend less on employing more bureaucrats, we spent less on building hospitals, roads, schools, and ports. This poor allocation of spending means less work for the construction sector;

2. we spent money on an inflated public service wage bill which meant the unions and the political parties were happy. But all those people made the civil service less efficient and fiscus lighter in weight;

Here is the real problem: YOU CANNOT CREATE JOBS. Politicians are lying to everybody with this nonsense.

You create value & systems of distribution to multiply that value. The result of this is tasks to be performed. Those tasks bundled together = jobs.

You create a Facebook and an Internet to distribute that Facebook. More users on the platform = more tasks to be performed = more jobs.

You create a bank and people to service that customers of that bank = jobs.
Now tell me, what have we created in the past 25years.

The phone you are reading this tweet on, the TV you are watching, the suit you are wearing, the car you drive, the petrol in that car are ALL IMPORTED. We live in a country that wants to take DOLOLO risk doing anything new & innovative in a world DRIVEN BY INNOVATION but wonders why it is left behind the global curve of growth. In the words of my uncle, “Ububhanxa!”

We live in a country that thinks “assembly” is manufacture.
We live in a country that thinks conferencing is problem-solving.

I have before written & spoken on public platforms about this. The world you know is gone. The ideas you accept as true have been debunked.

The lesson for all of us is simple: Adapt or die. Or in this case, create social unrest by widening inequality through joblessness.

Vusi Thembekwayo
Speaker | Investor | Dragon Slayer