ICT is one of the job drivers that were identified by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party to help solve the unemployment crisis in the country.
This was said at the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, called Lekgotla, held in Johannesburg last week.
The meeting was then followed by a two-day assembly of cabinet ministers, director-generals of various government departments, as well as the ANC national executive members.
The party says it is confident that in the next 10 years, the economy will be able to create five million new jobs and, thus, reduce the unemployment rate from the present 25% to at least 15%.
The new jobs will be achieved through five clusters of 'job drivers' which ICT falls under is one of them, it points out.
These five are Infrastructure (energy, transport, water, housing and ICT), main economic sectors (agriculture agro-processing, mining and beneficiation, tourism etc), social capital (social economy and the public sector) and new economies that include the green economy and the knowledge economy spatial opportunities (rural development and the African region development), it says.
Infrastructure will create 250 000 (public investment - construction, operations maintenance and supplier industries) and knowledge economy will create 100 000 (ICT, higher education, healthcare, new technologies, mining-related technologies, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology) towards the projected five million jobs, it promises.
After the Lekgotla meeting, the minister of communication and the minister of science and technology are expected to give out a plan on how ICT is going to be utilised to initiate job creation, the ANC says.
Dream welcomed
The opposition party, Democratic Alliance (DA) says it welcomes indications that the ANC government has changed its position on job creation by apparently prioritising new jobs over the negotiation of conditions of employment.
“Now we call on President Jacob Zuma and the economic ministers to indicate their support for the new position,” it says.
Last year 6,4 million South Africans were unable to find work, or had given up looking.
“Unemployment is a national crisis but, up until now, the ANC has not had the stomach to ease up our restrictive labour laws and risk offending their 'alliance partners',” the DA says
However, it goes on to say, without tackling fundamental reform of our labour legislation, plans such as the New Growth Path - rolled out by the cabinet to address productivity pacts that we want to engender and promote between business and labour at the workplace - and the Industrial Policy Action Plan amount to tinkering at the edges of the economy.
Hope in ICT
Late last year, the party suggested it will attempt to shape a new social and economic trajectory via rapid deployment and utilisation of ICTs. It said the aim was to address poverty and underdevelopment afflicting the urban and rural poor.
The ruling party says this goal exists within the overall drive to accelerate economic growth and social development, and will occur through a comprehensive national ICT plan.
It also developed documents in preparation for the NGC, including a 16-page paper on its proposed ICT resolutions aimed at improving delivery of services.
In his political overview, Zuma re-affirmed the centrality of the Freedom Charter in guiding the work of the ANC-led government. He also emphasised that this year ANC needs to concentrate on the creation of jobs and meaningful economic transformation, and that the 'New Growth Path' should be used as a framework for the creation of the much-needed jobs.
The ANC used its own NEC meeting and the two day Lekgotla to focus on job creation as a focal point of its activities this year within the five priorities identified in the 2009 manifesto.
The discussions were guided by the ANC NGC that took place last year, ANC election manifesto of 2009 and the NEC 2011 8 January statement.
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