Economist Xhanti Payi says job creation and skills development are crucial to help the South African economy bounce back.
The country slipped into a technical recession on Tuesday.
Growth fell by 0.7 percent in the second quarter, following a 2.2 decline in the first quarter of 2018.
The largest contribution to the slowdown in growth came from agriculture.
Payi says employment would grow the economy.
“We say our problems are inequality, poverty and unemployment, but we know that poverty and unemployment are related things. When we think about inequality, we think about what kinds of employment we will create so that people can earn fairly. Those are part of the reforms we talk about and transformation. Secondly, when we think about growth, growth is about people doing things, it isn’t the other way around. So we tend to think that we must first grow the economy and then employ people. But first we employ people and by their efforts we grow the economy. So how do we reach the potential of people; we give them the skills so they are involved in the economy. That is the one thing we have failed to do, is give people the potential to participate”.
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