Kamer lewer kommentaar op die 2010 begroting

We feel that overall the budget was fair and we would like to look for further engagement with government with regards to the Employment subsidy for the youth.
South Africa has a huge job crisis – particularly with the youth in the country. While SA did create nearly 2 million jobs since 2000, we lost half of them due to the recession in just one year. Small business was particularly hard hit.
Employment is by far the biggest economic crisis facing the country. The minister did announce a subsidy for hiring younger people as they have an unemployment rate twice the country average. They must have no work experience and will still be subjected to minimum labour standards.
While the idea is good and a good start the fact is that our education system more than the employers have let the youth down. To get one pupil through high school now costs the tax payer over R124 000 as less than a third of the school leaving age group successfully complete school.
But even with school completed many lack basic skills to be productively employed. While further discussion are on the table we may need to rethink the old artisan type training system which can give young adults further productive skills.
The subsidy is a good idea but needs further support as employers may not wish to receive a subsidy for people who fail to add value to a company. Perhaps combining the SETA’s and the subsidy may help. Perhaps some can be employed as security guards and the like. However most need much more training and this remains a problem for firms already under time and money pressure.
As employers we at the Groter Johannesburgse Sakekamer also feel that government should look at relaxing dome of the labour laws for the first time job entrance as France has recently do. Small employers (those below 50 employees) are often at a disadvantage when it comes to labour laws as they cannot afford specialists to help them with very complex labour laws. More than 52% of all jobs are with small companies and they have a big fear of employing “unknowns”.
The Groter Johannesburgse Sakekamer also feels that some more administrative relief could have been given to small business.