"Technology has split the world’s workers into haves and have-nots. The first group has know-ledge and skills - and therefore gets the best work and the highest pay. The rest have to settle for the scraps. SA, unfortunately, has a critical mass of the latter. Already a worldwide debate is raging about how to manage this issue. Societies are being divided along new fault lines. Governments face questions for which there appear to be no answers. And the ANC government’s alliance with Cosatu and the SA Communist Party promises to embroil it in especially tricky discussions.

"The bad news is … there is no free lunch. In a world of instant information and fickle finance, politicians have to toe the line: or see their economic lifelines cut. Workers at all levels have to deliver, or see their work go to some stranger in a far-off land who is willing to work for one-fifth, or maybe one-twentieth, of the wages, for 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

"Trade unions can rail about a ‘living wage,’ improved working conditions, but if they don’t persuade their members to work harder, faster and smarter for less, they will sooner or later have no members. And if their major contribution is to lobby for an even better deal for themselves, they will ultimately find themselves worse off.

"Unhappily, they will not be the only losers. Just as foreign firms will assign work to other lands, so will SA firms have to play the same game. Jobs will become one of our major exports. After all, there is no sense in trying to compete on an uneven playing field.

help to fall back on arguments that  ‘We are a special case’ or that ‘We have to overcome the legacy of apartheid.’ Nor will there be gains from suggesting that others owe us assistance or are morally obliged to help us to our feet. Outside our borders, economic decision makers, companies and customers simply don’t care about our past or our problems. We either shape up or they will pass us by.

"For those who are out of work, the portents are dreadful. Many of the youngsters passing through our inadequate education system face a hopeless future. A lot of people who believe that they have secure employment now will find themselves on the street. If SA companies want to be world players, they will have to employ fewer people with new and better skills. If they do that, they will exacerbate the jobs crisis - and impoverish the communities they rely on for custom.

"While they wrestle with this paradox, politicians and trade union leaders are likely to turn up the heat and demand more for less. The result is entirely predictable. Managers will make rational choices. They will take their investment to greener pastures and hire people in Bangladesh, Beijing and Boston."