William-Mervin Gumede writes: we can beat the recession if we work together

Trade unions must now also become more creative. This is not the moment to insist on wage increases of 15percent , as the National Union of Mineworkers did. They should consider job sharing, working half-time, taking a cut in salaries, to keep as many people as possible in jobs.

SHOOT: Some interesting ideas here. His comments on BEE are interesting. Some of it makes sense, this comment, I'm less sure:

The first (step) must be to tackle greedy bankers, who with their selfish behaviour are strangling the economy.

SHOOT: Banks facillitate commerce, so punishing them is hardly the answer. Regulating them yes, and perhaps restricting their fees-for-all. But banks must also be encouraged to provide finance and broker deals. If banks fail, so will everything else in an economy geared the way it is right now.

clipped from www.sowetan.co.za THE greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s presents obvious dangers, but it also offers South Africa a rare second opportunity to refashion its economy so that it finally lifts more people out of mass poverty. However, to grasp the opportunity, we will have to be innovative. Equally, we must act with urgency. Sadly, it took confirmation of the news last week that South Africa has plunged into recession for the first time in almost two decades to shake government, business and labour leaders out of their complacency. Black economic empowerment must be scrapped in its entirety or at least be restricted to one person for each BEE deal. Transferring more than R500bn to a dozen black oligarchs, purely on the basis of their political ‘connectivity’, is a scandal. This is the moment to introduce a basic income grant by supporting poor families with children up to 18 years who remain in school.