Jean-Jacques Cornish

Jobs summit gets R100 billion commitment from financial sector

South Africa’s financial sector’s committed R100-billion euros over the next five years to support black businesses.

This announcement from President Cyril Ramaphosa addressing the 400 delegates at a job summit says will boost growth and get many of the 5.6 million unemployed South Africans back to work.

On the first of the two-day job summit outside Johannesburg, President Cyril Ramaphosa says much needs to be done  to lift the country out of recession.

He’s been preparing the summit since announcing it to Parliament in March.

By invitation only it has 100 delegates each from government, the private sector, unions and community organizations.

Ramaphosa’s  at pains to show he is not trying to  repackage old ideas.

His Labour Minister Mildred Olifant has called this a moment of truth.

However the head of Business Unity South Africa Sipho  Pityane says the summit cannot possibly provide all the answers for reducing the country’s unemployment rate currently in excess of 27%.

At least one union umbrella, the South African Federation of Trade Unions is not attending, saying there is nothing new on offer.

Ramaphosa says he’s looking to create new jobs – starting with 100 000 this year – and to support existing ones.

He’s redirecting capital into labour intensive industries such as agriculture and infrastructure development 

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Jean-Jacques Cornish is a journalist and broadcaster who has been involved in the media all his adult life.

Starting as a reporter on his hometown newspaper, he moved briefly to then Rhodesia before returning to South Africa to become a parliamentary correspondent with the South African Press Association. He was sent to London as Sapa’s London editor and also served as special correspondent to the United Nations. He joined the then Argus group in London as political correspondent.

Returning to South Africa after 12 years abroad, he was assistant editor on the Pretoria News for a decade before becoming editor of the Star and SA Times for five years.

Since 1999 he’s been an independent journalist writing and broadcasting – mainly about Africa – for Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape
Talk, Radio France International, PressTV, Radio Live New Zealand, Business Day, Mail & Guardian, the BBC, Agence France Press,
Business in Africa, Leadership, India Today, the South African Institute for International Affairs and the Institute for Security Studies.

He has hosted current affairs talk shows on Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape Talk. He appears as an African affairs pundit on SABC Africa and CNBC Africa.
He lectured in contemporary studies to journalism students at the Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Pretoria.

He speaks on African affairs to corporate and other audiences.
He has been officially invited as a journalist to more than 30 countries. He was the winner of the 2007 SADC award for radio journalism.

He’s been a member of the EISA team observing elections in Somaliland, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Egypt and Tunsiai.

In October 2009 he headed a group of 39 African journalists to the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Peoples’ Republic of China.

In January 2010 he joined a rescue and paramedical team to earthquake struck Haiti.

He is immediate past president of the Alliance Francaise of Pretoria.

Jean-Jacques is a director of Giant Media. The company was given access to Nelson Mandela in his retirement years until 2009.
He is co-producer of the hour-long documentary Mandela at 90 that was broadcast on BBC in January 2009.