The Cape Argus leader (“Welfare state is nothing to be proud of, Mr President”) refers.
In fact, the president should be ashamed. There are almost 30million people in South Africa today living off a pittance from the government. This is entirely attributable to the government’s policies in employment and labour law.
Today the elite in South Africa are those who are employed. The tax base is shrinking at an alarming rate.
Most of the 5million taxpayers are in fact earning less year-on year and a large proportion are considering emigrating with their skills and their ability to earn.
When this tax base shrinks to 3 million people we will see most of the service delivery in the country collapse completely.
The only way we are going to reverse this is by reversing government policies and over-regulation in the small business sector.
The most ridiculous policy is linking small businesses to big businesses in the bargaining councils. In essence, small businesses have to compete with big businesses by paying the same contributions and employing at the same rates.
It is not sustainable and has never been sustainable. A new government could come in and reverse this with the stroke of a pen.
This reversal should take up more than a million unemployed persons directly into the economy.
* Michael Bagraim, Cape Town.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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