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Corruption hampers job creation

Corruption plays a key role in stalling efforts to create jobs and decrease the country's high unemployment rate, said Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela. Madonsela, who was speaking at the University of the Witwatersrand’s annual labour law conference in Johannesburg on Wednesday, said the real issue of corruption was that it took crucial resources away from where they should be directed to, which affected employment. South Africa's unemployment rate for the first quarter of 2016 was at 26.7 percent, which improved slightly to 26.6 percent in the second quarter. This, however, only includes people who are actively looking for work and not those who have given up. Including discouraged work seekers, the unemployment rate is north of 40 percent.

Madonsela offered examples of how corruption manifested in areas involving tenders and whistle blowers, noting that innocent victims were often disadvantaged in the workplace. "Tenderpreneurship encourages business people to be corrupt. Because, if you start a company that solely depends on tenders, then you have to ensure that every time you submit an application you get something out of it,” said Madonsela, whose term in office ends in October. She also told of a scenario where a worker who spoke against corruption was branded as unemployable by her previous employer in the market. Even with these illustrations, Madonsela said that it was not all ''doom and gloom" as there were solutions that could be implemented.

One of those solutions was the implementation of pledge sheets where private companies and the government departments could promise that they were against corruption. She added the onus was also on the public not encourage corruption.

Source: www.iol.co.za

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Corruption hampers job creation

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