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President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks at the Cosatu Worker's Day rally at Athlone Stadium in Cape Town, May 1 2024. Picture: REUTERS/ESA ALEXANDER
President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks at the Cosatu Worker's Day rally at Athlone Stadium in Cape Town, May 1 2024. Picture: REUTERS/ESA ALEXANDER

Duma Gqubule has hit one between the eyes (“Ramaphosa’s ludicrous pledges on more jobs are insulting”, May 7).

Under ANC governance the number of unemployed has risen from 4-million  in 1994 to 12-million. Growth today is a mere 1% per annum, perhaps rising to 1.5%. Yet the president promises 1-million new jobs a year!

It is ludicrous, but Ramaphosa may inadvertently have given the game away in his recent Workers Day address in Cape Town. He placed the blame for today’s unemployment on the pre-1994 policy of  apartheid, pointing out that apartheid purposefully excluded the majority from meaningful participation in the economy.

This undermined competition, which Ramaphosa (correctly) said was essential for growth. But can he not see that his party’s modern day apartheid policies are excluding minorities from meaningful participation in the economy?

Can he not see that his race-based  ideology is destroying competition and jobs just as was the case before 1994? There are none so blind as those who will not see.

Willem Cronje
Cape Town

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