CREATE JOBS FOR GRADUATES TO BOOST PAYE – LABOUR STAKEHOLDERS

MANZINI – Stakeholders in the labour sector say government should create jobs that will absorb graduates who will contribute to pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) tax.

On Saturday, our sister publication, Eswatini News, reported that government presented a plan to create 9 055 jobs this year from new and existing investments to be introduced in the country. Prime Minister (PM) Cleopas Dlamini  was quoted as having said that the envisaged jobs would come from a variety of sectors, one of which was the building of factory shells, which would create over 700 jobs during the construction phase and 6 270 upon completion. The various stakeholders were sought for comment on the nature of opportunities that could be brought by these jobs given that the Labour Force Survey of 2021 report stated that the overall unemployment in the kingdom was 33.3 per cent, which was an acute increase from 23.4 per cent recorded in 2016. This report stated that youth employment was at 58.2 per cent. Economics scholar and University of Eswatini Lecturer, Sanele Sibiya, said government was always announcing that jobs would be created.

Opportunities

He said from what had been learnt from the past, the job opportunities that were availed, absorbed a limited number of the educated youth which government funded through scholarships. He said what the country needed, in order to have a sustainable economy, was a creation of employment opportunities that would promote skills transfers. Making an example, he said it did not benefit the country to offer tenders to companies from abroad to engage in work that could be executed by locals. He said for the probase programme, government should look into how other countries had done it in terms of absorbing the skill. “If the skills can be transferred, we’d have companies within communities that repair such infrastructure. In this way, long-term employment would be created as such companies can also be used by the local governments (municipalities and town councils),” Sibiya said.

The economics scholar also said government needed to share the specifics of the nature of jobs that were being brought into the country because low paying jobs like textile factories had a minimal impact. An economist who gave his scholarly opinion on condition of anonymity said government needed a guideline to create quality employment aligned with the curriculum in schools. He said promising jobs that were not in line with the policies set limited the exploitation of the graduates.

Targets

The economist said it was prudent to have short and long-term targets in the nature of developing the jobs that were being created would have in the country. Meanwhile, the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) Secretary General (SG0, Mduduzi Gina, had always insisted that the nature of jobs brought into the country should be decent. Gina said this was born out of their experience from the past, as he claimed that the employment opportunities announced and later delivered before had created a poor working class that which was remunerated far below the cost-of-living.

“If the 9 000 jobs announced by government would absorb a minimum of 5 000 graduates, then that would improve the lives of emaSwati as the employed would also employ other people in the informal sector,” Gina said. He said their call for the absorption of graduates was to bring trust to the youth that education was a source of employment, unlike now, as most of the unemployed were graduates. The trade unionist said it was also key to ensure that the employment opportunities that were frequently announced by government meant that employees recruited would be within the tax bracket. On the other hand, a questionnaire was sent to the Deputy Government Spokesperson, Thabile Mdluli. She was sought for an input following concerns raised that government in most instances gave figures of people to be employed; however, at close scrutiny, the nature of the jobs brought did not absorb a great percentage of the graduates produced by local tertiary institutions.

However, Mdluli referred the questions to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade. It was sent to the Minister, Manqoba Khumalo.  The Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo said government was very proud of the efforts on job creation.  Khumalo said as reported mid-last year, the ministry had seen many jobs being created across many sectors of the economy - namely Agriculture, Forestry, Manufacturing and Retail.

Cabinet

He said: “This coming year we have very specific plans on job creation that will be supported by the budget that Cabinet will propose to Parliament as well as investment promotion efforts led by Eswatini Investment Promotion Authority (EIPA). The minister said they were  planning to create  over 9 000 direct permanent jobs and a further 3 000 jobs that would support these new ventures across the value and supply chains. Khumalo said about 2 000 of these jobs would be in the mining sector - specifically growth in existing mines coupled with  new projects for which licences had been issued.

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