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Equality divide not racial but betweenemployed, unemployed: de Klerk

 An unemployed man on the side of the road. File photo.

Image by: DANIEL BORN

«It is a divide that lies at the heart of ourinequality challenge,» he said at a CapeTown Press Club memorial dinner Thur-

sday night.

De Klerk said it was also a divide «that the Congressof SA Trade Unions is determined to defend by vi-gorously opposing any efforts to make the labourmarket more exible».

Another principal cause of inequality was the «ca-tastrophic failure of our education system».

A total of 60% of those who left school did so withouta matric, and those who passed matric did so withan average mark of less than 40%, he said.

The last State President of apartheid-era South Africaalso said the outcome of the ANC’s elective confe-rence in Mangaung at the end of the year could havea big effect on South Africa’s future.

“I do think the choice of leadership in this Decembercan positively or negatively effect our future in theshort and the medium term,” he said.

It was important that African National Congressmembers attending the conference acted in the in-terests of the country, and not individuals.

“Therefore I think it’s important that, in the contextof a party structure, that the conference goers takegood account of what is in the best interests not of person A or person B, but what is in the best interestsof South Africa.”

De Klerk called for a return to the spirit of seeking

reconciliation that prevailed in the country in theyears immediately after 1994.

“How can we rise above grabbing and looking forpositions and lling your pockets?”

South Africa needed political leaders who couldserve communities and “put their hands and theirheads together in ensuring we tackle the challengeswe face”.

Responding to a question on whether South Africashould not be promoting itself with a massive inter-national “road show”, De Klerk said investors hadbeen frightened by what they had seen happeningin South Africa over the past 18 months.

“What has happened at Marikana will make a jokeof any road show,” he said, referring to the shootingdead of 34 striking mineworkers by police in NorthWest on August 16.

They were also put off by reports of corruption.

08/09/2012 15:04

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Equality divide not racial but between employed, unemployed: de Klerk

“Investors are put off by factual accounts of theunbridled corruption that is taking place in SouthAfrica. You can’t have a road show unless your houseis in order.

“We need to sell ourselves, but we need to get theproduct right [rst].”

De Klerk criticised the ruling party’s armative

action and black economic empowerment policies.

“In the face of increasing national inequality, thereis good reason to conclude that the government’sarmative action and BEE policies have failed to ad-dress inequality, and might even have aggravated it.

“This is because most armative action and BEEoccur in the top 10% to 15% of the income pyramidand have little or no impact on the bottom 85% of our society.

De Klerk, who served as South Africa’s last apar-theid president from 1989 to 1994, called for thesepolicies to be abandoned.

“Shift the accent in armative action programmesfrom race to relative disadvantage,” he said.

He also offered recommendations for the promo-tion of equality, including a more exible labourdispensation, accelerated economic growth, and therooting out of corruption, among others.

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