Jobs bloodbath continues

Dear Editor

The jobs bloodbath that continues everywhere that the ANC governs, is a most compelling reason to vote the ANC out in two weeks’ time.

While unemployment remains at startling levels in ANC provinces, it is still in the DA-governed Western Cape that South Africans have the best chance to get a job.

It must be devastating for the ANC to watch these numbers come in and realise that where they govern, jobs and lives are destroyed.

With our elections a fortnight away, today’s release of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for Q1:2024 presents a stark choice for the electorate. Our next five years will either be defined by a worsening unemployment crisis – or the start of a new chapter of opportunity for South Africans.

The QLFS now shows that our unemployment rate stands at 32,9% for Q1 2024. This is an increase of 0,8%, which has resulted in another 330 000 South Africans losing their jobs in the last 3 months. Our unemployment numbers now stand at a shocking 8,2 million South Africans, while 13,1 million South Africans are defined as being discouraged and economically inactive. The real unemployment rate thus standing at a monumental 41,9% – continuing South Africa’s dominance as one of the most unemployed countries in the world – all thanks to the archaic and failed economic policies of the ANC.

In our young democracy, our youth remain overwhelmingly excluded. The NEET unemployment rate for South Africans aged between 15 to 34 years still sits at an appalling 43,8%, which highlights the ANC’s utter disregard for the future of our country.

Our country desperately needs an invigorated labour market, which only the DA is strong enough to achieve.

We will modernise our labour market through undoing the structural barriers which have brought our job crisis. With our Youth Employment Opportunity Certificate (YEOC), a DA-led government will transform South Africa into an enterprise economy, where young people can truly gain experience, with small businesses having open doors to hire.

In the Western Cape, we have shown what we can achieve, even with the ANC working against us. Through sensible, evidence-based policies, the Western Cape, while hamstrung by destructive national ANC economic policies and red tape, remains South Africa’s job engine.

Its provincial unemployment rate today sits at 21,4%, a decrease of 0,2% compared to the previous Q1 2023. This attests to Premier Alan Winde’s Growth for Jobs (J4G) Strategy, which is set to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the next several years. Premier Winde has shown what can be achieved, and the DA stands ready to bring this change to the rest of our country from 29 May.

As South Africans, we can only achieve prosperity if we choose it. Let the ANC’s ruin be the start of a better tomorrow. Vote DA for an economy fit for our beautiful country and its people.

Regards

Michael Bagraim MP
DA Shadow Minister of Employment and Labour