Statistics Don’t Lie – But They Lie Through Statistics

Have you ever wondered why there are so many poor people in South Afrika today? Latest statistics (Labour Force Survey Fourth Quarter 2008/’09) indicate that there are 14 million employed people in this country and that during the last quarter alone employment went up by 1.4% while unemployment decreased by 26%. When one asks deep-probing questions we get told that Statistics South Africa have changed the definition of ‘employment’ while they seem not to have changed the definition of ‘unemployment’.

Sounds technical? Wait for this. When the South Afrikan Revenue Service projects its annual bounty it does not use the 14 million individual taxpayers as a benchmark plus a few thousand companies that employ them. This is because most of these folks are actually employed by government in different capacities and while the entry level for most government jobs is R52000, 00 per annum, anyone earning less than that qualifies for tax amnesty.

Okay, what about the company tax? Government as an employer (company) can not pay tax to itself, so the employees and the employer don’t pay tax. South Afrikan Broadcasting Corporation and South African Airways (which are two other government departments) usually posts losses and don’t have to foot their tax bill because they didn’t make income. As a result we have a fledging ‘middle class’ whose existence does not impact on economic growth since economic growth is measured in Gross Domestic Product and the size of the Goolam’s booty.

But truly most people are poor because most of those purported to be existing jobs are actually temps at the construction of stadia, Gautrain (Mashatile Express), Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP), Siyatentela, Asibuyeleni Emasimini and many of the government programmes which are set up before every elections and are launched by MECs and Mayors with wide smiles as if people only eat before elections.

Finally, people are poor because the level of government that is tasked with implementation; local government is so infested with cronyism that it is impossible for skilled people to find jobs there but disciplined cadres of the movement – same thing with why the Sector Education and Training Authorities, Youth Commission, Umsobomvu and many state agencies don’t work.

They should employ us and see poverty alleviated without food parcels and free houses, but quality jobs and enough money for people to build their own houses. Agghh, I’m just grumbling I guess, but it is the same situation that makes people opt to cope with the situation when they should be comfortable in their own laurels.