CDE executive director Ann Bernstein spoke to MoneyWeb’s Jeremy Maggs about South Africa’s persistently high unemployment rate and government’s overreliance on public employment schemes. She cautioned that while these programmes offer short-term relief, they distract from the structural reforms urgently needed to create real, sustainable jobs. “Firstly, there is a real limit to how much money can be spent on these jobs especially with a fiscal crisis. Then secondly, these are not real jobs as they are part-time on a fixed contract.”, says Bernstein. The interview followed the launch of CDE’s latest report, South Africa’s Unemployment Catastrophe: A call for urgent action.