It is an age-old cliché: ‘When life gives you lemons you should make lemonade’. This simple idiom simply conveys the notion that we should flip the script by: “making the harsh events one faces in life, positive.”

South Africa has a surplus of proverbial lemons in reference to our economy at present. A little over a week ago, on the 7^th of March 2023, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) gave us more negative news about South Africa’s declining economy: “After rallying in the third quarter of 2022, South African gross domestic product (GDP) declined by 1,3% in the fourth quarter (October‒December). Growth was dragged lower mainly by finance, trade, mining, agriculture, manufacturing and general government services.”

At first glance, the first bit of lemonade we could squeeze from recent economic activity was reported by the Mail and Guardian on the 28^th of February 2023: “South Africa’s official unemployment rate retreated during every quarter of 2022, according to data released on Tuesday.

Statistics South Africa’s quarterly labour force survey shows that the official unemployment rate recorded a slight decline of 0.2 percentage points, reaching 32.7% in the final quarter of 2022 — its fourth consecutive decrease.” This bit of lemonade reflecting a decrease in unemployment rates however, still leaves a sour taste as it reveals that nearly a third of all South Africans who should work, are currently without work. 

How then, under such difficult conditions, do we find positivity and opportunity?

Izak Odendaal in an article on MoneyWeb, published on the 14^th March 2023, sweetens our sour citrus drink. On the ever-concerning issue of unemployment, he points out that: “We don’t have a shortage of workers. The South African labour force continues to grow steadily and therefore is not a constraint on long-run growth, as is the case in developed economies and China where the labour force growth has ground to a halt or even gone into reverse, pulling down long-run potential growth rates.”

Odendaal recognises however, that merely having a surplus of workers is not the only requirement for growing an economy. “The lack of skilled workers is a constraint, however, and therefore investment in education and training is also important. This doesn’t necessarily mean university degrees. Many of the skills in short supply are technical and hands-on in nature, such as electricians.”

Education, education, that is South Africa’s path away from economic inequality, poverty and unemployment! South African youth do appreciate the importance of an education, however we do need to reprioritise our understanding of what an education is. On the 27^th of January 2022, TimesLive warned that South African public universities are unable to accommodate all applicants:  “Only 200,000 first-year students will be admitted to public SA universities this year — less than a quarter of the applications received.” Juxtaposed to this, enrolment for artisanal skills is undersubscribed: “South Africa is facing a critical shortage of skilled artisans… Last November, Blade Nzimande, Minister of higher education, science and innovation, said that South Africa needed at least 60% of those leaving school to become artisans to meet the country’s demand for the skills.

The National Development Plan aims to add 30,000 artisans per annum by 2030; however, current estimates predict only 20,000 per year, resulting in a shortage of “priority skills.”” According to an article published on the 19^th February 2023, by BusinessTech.

Culturally, with a vision for enabling our youth to lead South African economic growth into the medium- to long-term, we need to focus our energies on shifting the perception on what truly constitutes an education and how we apply skills to where there is a shortage. Artisans have the ability to start small and medium enterprises, thus solving our bulging unemployment rate and halted economic growth. 

As it stands, further investment is needed to resuscitate our ailing economy. Odendaal expands on this notion further in the same article by stating: “When an economy invests more, it gets a double whammy of short-term and long-term growth. In the short term, the act of building the factory or upgrading the software adds to GDP, but it also facilitates future economic activity.”

Artisans will build future manufacturing plants in South Africa and their skills will be applied to produce the goods we wish to compete with on the international market. 

The time is now for us to begin squeezing the excess lemons we have, education is what will sweeten our sour, unpalatable beverage into lemonade. 

Photocredit: Image by vfktibr on Wallpapers.com