Trade & industry can be more industrious with pulling job-creation levers
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Love it or hate it, we can all agree that the Covid-19 lockdown has had a severe social and economic effect. Many would agree with me that a major aim of the government needs to be to nurse the economy through this period, preserving as many jobs as possible to prevent the measures taken to contain the pandemic from having a crippling effect on SA’s economic performance in the years to come.
Jobs are the key. If we can keep people employed in the bad times we will be better prepared for the recovery, however slow and unsteady that might be. President Cyril Ramaphosa introduced a R500bn stimulus package to try to dampen the effect of Covid-19, and while it has its flaws, it has made a difference.
There was R200bn for a bank loan guarantee scheme, which has been slow to crank up, but which does offer some hope to struggling businesses. There has been the R40bn temporary employer relief scheme (Ters) fund — already spent, but hopefully to be topped up — to pay the wages of workers who would otherwise have been laid off. They don’t all get what they had been earning before, but the aim is survival, not luxury. The latter is the privilege of the bootleggers, the true beneficiaries of the pandemic.
Further relief of R70bn comes from tax deferrals, which include a four-month holiday for companies that pay skills development levy contributions, fast-tracking of VAT refunds and the granting of a delay for filing and paying the carbon tax.
On top of all this is the R50bn in social grants, which do not have a direct effect on employment but do help prevent starvation of our most vulnerable, and will play a small part in keeping the wheels of the economy turning.
So far, so good. But what has been the role of the department of trade, industry & competition to support industry? The minister, Ebrahim Patel, was involved in detailed work on the lockdown, gaining most (unwanted) attention for his fine-tuning of the regulations on which items of clothing could and couldn’t be sold.
However, his department has been pretty quiet about the vitally needed measures to stimulate and sustain employment, despite it managing several programmes that support the creation of jobs. The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and National Empowerment Fund (NEF) answer to the minister and have been offering funding. But ...
Jobs are the key. If we can keep people employed in the bad times we will be better prepared for the recovery, however slow and unsteady that might be. President Cyril Ramaphosa introduced a R500bn stimulus package to try to dampen the effect of Covid-19, and while it has its flaws, it has made a difference.
There was R200bn for a bank loan guarantee scheme, which has been slow to crank up, but which does offer some hope to struggling businesses. There has been the R40bn temporary employer relief scheme (Ters) fund — already spent, but hopefully to be topped up — to pay the wages of workers who would otherwise have been laid off. They don’t all get what they had been earning before, but the aim is survival, not luxury. The latter is the privilege of the bootleggers, the true beneficiaries of the pandemic.
Further relief of R70bn comes from tax deferrals, which include a four-month holiday for companies that pay skills development levy contributions, fast-tracking of VAT refunds and the granting of a delay for filing and paying the carbon tax.
On top of all this is the R50bn in social grants, which do not have a direct effect on employment but do help prevent starvation of our most vulnerable, and will play a small part in keeping the wheels of the economy turning.
So far, so good. But what has been the role of the department of trade, industry & competition to support industry? The minister, Ebrahim Patel, was involved in detailed work on the lockdown, gaining most (unwanted) attention for his fine-tuning of the regulations on which items of clothing could and couldn’t be sold.
However, his department has been pretty quiet about the vitally needed measures to stimulate and sustain employment, despite it managing several programmes that support the creation of jobs. The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and National Empowerment Fund (NEF) answer to the minister and have been offering funding. But ...
