'Economic growth alone not a silver bullet for SA - we need public employment programmes as well'

We hear all the time that what South Africa needs to solve its most pressing problems, is economic growth.

But would this automatically lead to more jobs in the country?

Stephen Grootes interviews Kate Philip, Programme Lead at the Presidential Employment Stimulus.

In an opinion piece for Business Day, Philip argues that economic growth on its own cannot solve the challenges caused by unemployment.

She's responding to a previous article written by Ann Bernstein from the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE), who says that a misplaced focus on public employment schemes perpetuates the unemployment crisis.

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Philip believes the country needs growth and public employment both working together to tackle joblessness.

"There's no doubt with regard to the debate we've been having in the pages of Business Day, that there is no debate whatsoever that we need forms of economic growth and development that create more and better jobs - I there are few issues on which there is a greater degree of consensus."

The real issue, Philip says, is HOW we do that.

She emphasizes her argument that growth will not serve as a silver bullet on its own.

"There's a lot of evidence, from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) included, that in the context of very high inequality, growth tends to reproduce those patterns and bypass the poor. So you actually need a MIX of policies including social policies that ensure some of the benefits of growth actually do reach people who might otherwise be bypassed."

As an example, she says while public employment schemes may not have managed to go to the kind of scale like for instance the Social Relief of Distress grant, evidence shows that such interventions together with employment programmes provide a stimulus effect in local economies as people have money in their pockets to spend.

For more detail, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article