Carlo Petersen
THE DA has admitted job creation in the Western Cape is not happening fast enough, after the ANC produced evidence to show unemployment in the province has worsened under the DA’s rule.
But DA spokeswoman for Economic Opportunities, Tourism and Agriculture Beverley Schäfer said that although unemployment has increased, so has the working population.
Minister of Economic Development Ebrahim Patel had unveiled in his State of the Nation speech that unemployment had increased by almost 5 percent under the DA administration in the Western Cape.
“Premier Helen Zille inherited from the ANC administration in 2009 a provincial unemployment rate of 19.9 percent – the lowest in the country. Today that rate is 24.5 percent, almost five percentage points higher, and it grew at a rate faster that the national rate,” he said.
Schäfer admitted that job creation in the province was deplorable. “The DA is still not satisfied that job creation is happening quick enough, but we will continue to drive job creation through our key focus areas such as tourism, agri-processing, and the oil and gas sectors,” she said.
Patel said that there were 525 000 unemployed people in the province when the DA assumed control in 2009.
“Today, six years later, there are 705 000 unemployed persons, or 181 000 additional unemployed people. That is 34 percent more than before she took office,” he said.
“While jobs numbers grew in both the Western Cape and in SA as a whole since 2009, the racial composition of the jobs go to the tragedy of DA policies.”
Patel added that the bulk of job creation in the Western Cape continued to benefit white people. He said whites in the province made up 16 percent of working-age residents in 2014, yet they benefited from 57 percent of total job growth, or 73 000 net job opportunities, from April 2009 to December 2014.
“In contrast, Africans made up 32 percent of the working-age population, but got just 16 percent of jobs, while coloureds, who made up 51 percent of the population, also accounted for a very small part of the new jobs growth.”
Schäfer hit back yesterday, saying:
“As the province’s economy improves through the implementation of sound economic development policies, so more and more South Africans move to the province in search of opportunities. The number of unemployed people has only increased by 153 000, although the working population has increased by 728 000.
“This means that more than four out of every five people who join the Western Cape labour force are finding jobs. On both the broad and narrow employment statistics, which exclude discouraged work seekers, unemployment in the province has come down. Minister Patel is opportunistic in criticising the DA.”