According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) released by Statistics South Africa today, the Western Cape is one of only two provinces which has seen an increase in employment in comparison to the third quarter of 2020. This was achieved through the provincial government’s support to the province’s economy which clawed back 9 000 jobs in the last year. The expanded unemployment rate in the Western Cape is currently at 30.3%, the lowest in the country while in three provinces, namely KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, where half the working population is without work with the unemployment rate over 50%.
In the last quarter, industries such as agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transport and finance all recorded gains in employment. This is in part due to the continued work by the provincial government to place jobs at the centre of its work. The Western Cape Government’s Recovery Plan has laid the ground work for the recovery and growth of the provincial economy and in order to ensure that opportunities lost to the pandemic are reclaimed. The efforts by the provincial government to support and grow the economy include:
- Support the exporting industry by the Western Cape Government saw a 7.4% increase in exports amounting to R136.72 billion in 2020, despite the challenges brought on by the pandemic.
- Through Wesgro’s Investment Promotion Unit, R4.37 billion in investment projects have been secured for the province and created more than 1 800 jobs in the 2020/21 financial year.
- And the Western Cape is the only province to have a dedicated programme, the Municipal Energy Resilience Initiative, which supports municipalities in procuring, producing and selling their own energy so that the Western Cape might be the first province to beat loadshedding and bring energy security to residents.
While there is much work still ahead in order for the Western Cape to fully recovery from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown, the foundations for economic recovery are in place. However, the travel restrictions placed on South Africa in light of the discovery of the Omnicron variant, risks the gains that we have made particularly in the tourism and hospitality sector. I have called on the national government to support the industry through a comprehensive tourism relief package. We must do all that we can to ensure that we do not lose momentum now in our recovery.