Funding shortage torpedoes government's job-saving project

The government’s jobs-saving programme‚ led by the Department of Labour’s Productivity SA‚ has been suspended as a result of funding shortages.

This follows Statistics SA’s grim announcement on Tuesday that 8.9-million people are unemployed or have given up looking for work‚ while struggling companies‚ including in the mining and manufacturing sectors‚ continue to shed thousands of jobs.

Productivity SA had for a period of seven months failed to pay 20 service providers‚ which were appointed to carry out its Turnaround Solutions programme in a bid to save jobs.

The programme was designed to analyse distressed organisations to take practical steps aimed at reviving and restoring them to functional‚ profitable enterprises.

In an anonymous e-mail sent to Business Day‚ one of the service providers claimed its businesses were being driven into the ground as a result of not being paid by Productivity SA.

Productivity SA confirmed that due to its distressed financial position‚ it had not been able to settle its financial obligations to the service providers.