Maravi

Real issues, not basic statistics

Real issues, not basic statistics
By Editorial
Saturday October 27, 2007 [04:00]

Unemployment, especially among young people, remains a very serious problem for us as a nation and it is assuming intolerable levels. As things stand today, nobody can deny that unemployment - particularly youth unemployment - has reached unacceptable levels, especially at a time when politicians are relentlessly chorusing about high economic variables.

While our politicians are busy narrating the positive economic figures to the nation, the majority of the Zambian people continue to feel alienated from the much-hyped economic progress - they are not seeing the tangible benefits of what those in positions of power are seeing.

Young people like Mubanga Kangwa, who are a living symbol of the effects of unemployment, deserve to be listened to. But as they say, deeds and not words is what counts. We are not questioning the authenticity of the economic indicators which government leaders consistently refer to in their justification for the economic progress which our country is registering.

What is bothering us, like many other concerned stakeholders, is that these indicators do not seem to be making much sense to the majority of Zambians who, despite such a positive economic outlook, are failing to find their way out of the poverty trap.

Yes, we heard President Levy Mwanawasa on the eve of our Independence Day admitting that Zambia still faced numerous challenges and that it was now time to focus on economic independence.

Well, we must say that there is nothing completely new in the talk about economic independence because we have heard it for many years now and it should now be thrown into the trash can of political rhetoric where it really belongs.

What the people of Zambia are interested to hear from their leaders is not a reminder of basic and indisputable facts such as the growth of the economy at 5.8 per cent, the single-digit inflation, low interest rates or huge investment flows. Rather, Zambians are interested to know how significant, if so at all, these indisputable facts have been in terms of actually transforming their lives for the better.

What we ought to be clear about is that addressing the problem of unemployment is related to addressing broader structural economic problems in our economy and we should not pretend about this fact, no matter how positive economic indicators have been so far. If we are interested to fully appreciate the problem of unemployment in our country, we have to start at the structural level and address some of the structural problems in our economy.

First, we must admit that much as we can point to some growth in our economy, we have not adequately developed and diversified its industrial base. Our leaders may not want to hear this but the reality is that our economy is still oscillating around the same old sectors - mining, agriculture and tourism.

And we cannot expect to create many more job opportunities for our people as long as the economy is still largely dependent upon the same old sectors. What is even worse is that there has not been much effort to try and revive the industrial base which not only used to service the mining sector but was a significant factor in terms of job opportunities for Zambians.

In the past, before the destruction of our industries by Frederick Chiluba and his group, we had several manufacturing centres which used to service the mining sector and in that process, a lot of jobs were made available to the Zambian people. And because some people had a short-term view of everything they did, our economy's industrial base has basically been wiped out.

In our view, the government should start looking at reviving our country's industrial base. What we are saying is simply that there is need for a strong policy by the government to ensure that a diversified manufacturing and services base is built on top of other sectors such as mining, agriculture and tourism which are clearly failing to absorb our entire labour force. As long as we do not design an adequate industrial policy to support the growth of manufacturing, we will continue to talk about lack or employment for the people.

We cannot continue to pretend that unemployment is just a small problem and go on with the status quo, leaving things to fate when we know very well that joblessness has profound implications for poverty, human rights and political stability.

Let us not pretend and ignore the fact that unemployment is associated with extensive and deep poverty at household level. Unemployment is especially so cruel in a situation like ours where we have no social assistance programmes to lessen its effects on those without jobs.

The point is that the majority of the unemployed Zambians face a daily struggle to meet their basic needs. Unemployment is a serious problem in this country and we cannot continue to deal with it as though it were just a petty problem.

Today, in our compounds and in the villages, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to show why, if we truly have a conscience, we need to tackle the problem of unemployment with the importance that it deserves. We are sending children to universities and colleges but most of them are ending up on the streets after completing their studies because there is no employment for them.

So, instead of getting intoxicated with basic economic facts, those in leadership must recover from their hangover and realise that the problem of unemployment stares them in the face for solutions.

We want to believe that those in leadership are wise and capable enough to be ruminating about real solutions to unemployment, instead of regurgitating statistics which do nothing much except to fatigue us. Let's begin to address real issues, instead of hanging on to basic statistics.

Labels: EDITORIAL, UNEMPLOYMENT, YOUTHS

posted by MrK @ 10:50 AM