As South Africa celebrates Workers Day today to honor workers across our country, there will be no celebrations for the tens of millions of South Africans that do not have a job. Entire communities move closer to or below the poverty line as jobs are shed and local economies shrink.
But it does not have to be this way.
In DA led Metros and municipalities cross the honest and transparent government coupled with less talk and more action, the green shoots of recovery can be seen.
City of Tshwane
Reduced the city’s deficit from R4.3 billion (created by ANC administrators) to R613 million within 6 months of taking back office. The City is now on its way to having a surplus of R25 million by end of June 2022.
11 725 work opportunities created by the City by February 2022.
A new bus line has been launched connecting residents from Menlyn to the Inner City, opening up easier access to work opportunities.
City of Johannesburg
1800 more JMPD officers deployed to the inner-city to restore law and order in the economic centre.
Over 7000 potholes fixed in just seven weeks.
Two new clinics up and running, with 10 more in the pipeline.
City of Ekurhuleni
City’s credit rating changed from negative to stable since the election of a DA Mayor.
47 Independent Power Producers have been contracted by the City of Ekurhuleni to provide power to the city and help offset loadshedding.
City of Cape Town
Due to years of DA good governance by maintaining the Steenbras dam hydro-electric power station, residents of Cape Town are protected from one level of loadshedding.
Added to this, the DA-led Cape Town have now embarked on a three-year project to completely free residents from loadshedding by signing up with independent power producers.
The fight for Cape Town to take over the city’s rail network has been bolstered after National Treasury has given the go ahead for a feasibility study to take place.
Mossel Bay
As part of an economic development initiative by the municipality, Beehive business premises are rented out to SMMEs at a subsidised rate. There are five types of business Beehives designed to grow small start-ups into sustainable businesses.
Midvaal
The Sebenza Mbokodo Women’s Fund Project was established in 2019 and its focus is to provide access to funding to qualifying Black women owned businesses that operate in the informal trading sector within the Midvaal Local Municipality.
Saldanha Bay
The municipality launched a R3.2 million investment centre in May 2019. The investment centre provides services as town planning, informal trade services, and small, medium, and micro-sized enterprise development.
Stellenbosch
Stellenbosch municipality successfully launched a Job Seeker’s Database that is open to any skilled or unskilled person of the Greater Stellenbosch Municipal area.
Twenty-three young people who completed their skills development training courses graduated in February. These are all local young people who were previously unemployed.
Umgeni
In February the DA-run uMngeni municipality launched uMngeni Tourism, the official destination marketing and tourism development partner of the uMngeni municipality. This shows that the DA-run municipality is serious about job creation and economic growth and the tourism sector is an important part of its plans and vision.
George
Grant funding received for development of an enterprise development node in Pacaltsdorp.
Grant funding received for automation of various processes to ensure ease of business. Once these are fully implemented, they will be replicated to other municipalities.
Good, clean governance is vital to attracting businesses and creating jobs. DA-run municipalities consistently top the clean audit rankings. As a result, these same municipalities consistently deliver the best basic services and invest the most in infrastructure maintenance and upgrades.
The DA will continue to drive economic growth and foster economic development wherever we can. As South Africans, we must all work together to ensure that we have more people in work and more reason to celebrate in Workers Day’s still to come.