Steering South Africa into an unemployment abyss

Dear Editor

As South Africans prepare to head to the polls next month, there is really only one apex priority that should inform their final voting decision more than any other: Which party can meaningfully reduce unemployment? In the fourth quarter of 2023, StatsSA reported in its Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) that South Africa had the odious distinction of once again having the highest unemployment rate in the world at 32.1%, and even more alarmingly it highlighted the fact that 16 403 000 South Africans are not economically active and have given up on looking for a job altogether.

Every single day 6,8 million young South Africans (between the ages of 15-34) awake to relive a never-ending nightmare of hopelessness – the youth unemployment crisis, which has robbed them of their dignity and the innocence of their youth.

Given the truly dystopian scale of the unemployment calamity which South Africa faces as a country, and the threat it poses to our constitutional democracy, the very least we should be able to expect from those that lead us is that this situation should not be getting any worse. But this unfortunately is not the case. The shocking projections of the IMF’s 2024 World Economic Outlook Report published on the 16th April paints an alarmingly grim picture of a South Africa headed into an unemployment abyss. Unemployment under the present ANC National Government is set to rise to 33.5% in 2024, and then to 33.9% in 2025 in what can only be described as an economic bloodbath.

Should the projections of the IMF prove to be a true reflection of events to come, it will equate to a human tragedy of epic proportions which will further inflame economic class warfare and mean no South African will be spared from the effects of rising poverty and violent crime.

With StatsSA indicating that South Africa narrowly avoided a recession in Q1:2024 and with real GDP presently recorded at being just 0.4% we are by every measure on a path of economic decay.

Any electoral manifesto pledge made by the ANC to meaningfully reduce unemployment or to create jobs cannot be taken seriously.

The ANC have had the power to address the unemployment crisis in South Africa consistently for the past 30 years they have been in National Government. Yet, all they have to show South Africans for their efforts during their time in office is that they have delivered us the highest unemployment rate in the world.

The DA-Led Western Cape government however offers South Africans an example of what can be achieved if they vote for the Democratic Alliance on 29th May.

The Western Cape has the lowest unemployment rate in South Africa – more than 10 percentage points lower than the national unemployment rate of 32.1%.

In the last five years, four out of every five jobs in South Africa were created in the Western Cape. The DA’s Rescue Plan for South Africa which pledges to create 2 million new jobs is backed up by a strong record of delivery and performance in government, the best performing governments in South Africa to be precise, which have been consistently acknowledged for their favourable outcomes which have been verified by independent rating agencies including the auditor general.

A vote for the DA is a vote for jobs, and it is a promise to turn the despair and indignity of the unemployment crisis into a new story of real hope and real change for all South Africans.

Regards

Traverse Le Goff MP
DA Deputy Shadow Minister of Employment and Labour