praag.co.uk

MEDIA RELEASE

SUBJECT       :           UNEMPLOYMENT UNDERLYING CRIME, SOCIAL DECAY

ISSUED BY : Dr. Conrad Beyers

CAPACITY : FF Plus Chief Spokesperson: Finance

The Freedom Front Plus has said that unemployment is not only poor people’s problem but that it affects every South African because it underlies crime and other social problems in the country. The party has said that it is in the interest of all South Africans, whether white or black, rich or poor, that this fundamental problem becomes the highest priority of the government’s policy direction and initiatives.

Unemployment erodes the social substructure of the South African society, such as stable families and communities and has the tendency to, like an encroaching desert, also infringe on the working part of society.

According to Dr. Conrad Beyers, FF Plus spokesperson on Finance, the socialist government policy is the main cause of the unemployment problem.

“The government’s socialist policy of basic income grants, as well as various other grants, creates a culture of dependency and it smothers the incentive to work. The government’s restrictive labour policy such as BEE is keeping numerous potential businesses, which could create work, artificially from the economy. Furthermore, foreign investors are put off by the governing party’s dangerous flirtation with the idea of nationalisation,” Beyers said.

The country’s unemployment (extended definition) is at present 35,8%. Statistics South Africa (SSA) is making the problem worse by using an artificial and narrow definition for unemployment and based on this stating that unemployment has declined (according to SSA’s latest figures).

The country’s unemployment problem will not be resolved by merely viewing people who have stopped looking for work as not being unemployed. Economists view SSA’s definition of unemployment as dubious. South Africa’s unemployment is the highest of the 61 countries whose unemployment figures are monitored by the news agency Bloomberg. The labour force shrunk in the fourth quarter of last year with 207 000 to 17,3 million on a year on year basis.

The FF Plus said that it is unsustainable for the shrinking tax basis to continue funding the government’s socialist program, which only makes the unemployment situation worse.

CONRAD BEYERS

Contact no.: 082 213 0585