This month has seen some major changes in the leadership of South Africa and policy of the Government. The leader of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa, was elected as the new President of South Africa by Parliament after Jacob Zuma was forced to step down, after which he gave his first State of the Nation Address, and Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba delivered the 2018 Budget Speech.
One of the biggest announcements in President Ramaphosa’s speech was that a jobs summit will take place in the next few months, and one of the main things that will be discussed is youth unemployment which Mr Ramaphosa described as the “most grave and most pressing challenge” facing South Africa.
Another measure affecting the youth of the country was announced in Mr Gigaba’s Budget Speech. R57bn will be allocated over the course of three years, starting this year, to fund free tertiary education for first year students from households that earn less than R350 000 per annum. Most of the money required to finance the funding of free education will be raised by the increase in VAT from 14% to 15%
One of this year’s key developments for employers and workers will be the introduction of the National Minimum Wage Bill on 1st May, which will guarantee most workers a minimum salary of R20 per hour, and was described by President Ramaphosa in his speech as a means “to reduce wage inequality while maintaining economic growth and employment creation.”
Many South Africans are uncertain about what the actual consequences of these developments will be, so today on #JobAdviceSA we will discuss the implications for jobseekers and workers in the context of the high rate of unemployment and economic uncertainty.
Here are the questions that we will be answering:
Q1: Who should be attending the proposed jobs summit and what should be discussed?
Q2: What impact will free tertiary education have on unemployment?
Q3: What will be the consequences of the tax hikes that are necessary to fund free education?
Q4: How will the enactment of the Minimum Wage Bill affect employers and workers?
Our Hosts Tim Barry (@TimJBarry), Vanessa Raath (@Van_Raath), Elzette Fourie (@ElzetteFourie) and Wesley Madziva (@WeszMadz) will be on hand to give their advice and answer your other questions from 16h00 to 17h00, but you are welcome to tweet your questions to @JobAdviceSA at any time or day, or if you are not on Twitter you can like our Facebook page www.facebook.com/JobAdviceSA and post your questions there.
Remember to tweet your answers using the hashtag #JobAdviceSA or directly to @JobAdviceSA.
Structure – Four questions every 15min after the hour. We look forward to chatting with you!
