The provincial Department of Economic Development and Tourism retained its track record of excellence by achieving 91% of its targets, being awarded a clean audit as well as attracting more than R4.8 billion in investments during the 2020/21 financial year. The efforts by the Departments helped to mitigate the devasting impact that Covid-19 and its resulting lockdowns had on the local economy and protect businesses and communities that were most vulnerable to its effects.
The Department has been on the frontline and prioritised business support and upskilling of residents to create a business eco-system which reached every resident in every corner of the Western Cape. The Department’s various programmes have done this with more than 6 000 businesses having been assisted and nearly 14 000 jobs have been sustain and created in the Western Cape.
Some of these interventions and programmes included:
- The Red Tape Reduction Unit which pivoted in order to assist businesses in during the lockdown period by lobby for the reopening of different sectors as well as interpreting new Covid-19 business regulations. The Unit also assisted the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) in the payment of more than R43.8 million in TERS benefits to more than 8 500 employees in the province.
- Skills development and workplace programmes partnered with various sectors employ unemployed youth to support household incomes while the giving beneficiaries the experience they need to find permanent employment. As much as 70% of youth supported through this programme are still employed after leaving the programme.
- To support the tourism and hospitality industry, the Department deployed the first Tourism Safety Law Enforcement Unit at popular attractions in the metro which assisted more than 700 tourists and conducted more than 1 000 stop and searchers. Various marketing campaigns encouraged domestic and international tourism to the Western Cape while more than R3.8 million was invested in new tourism products through the Tourism Product Development Fund.
MPP Deidré Baartman says: “The agility and responsiveness by the Department during this last year has been a lifeline to keep businesses’ doors open and supported communities throughout the province. This has contributed to the Western Cape consistently having the lowest unemployment rate in the country. While much will need to be done to support industries that have not fully recovered from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the foundations for the economic recovery of the Western Cape economy is in place.”