ALAN WINDE: Jobs crisis requires change in mindset

Helping the private sector create jobs will be my government’s obsession as we look to push back against returning to normal, and push forward to do even better.

That is more important than ever. The consequences of Covid-19 and the two years of loss it caused are that we now face a second pandemic of unemployment which requires an immediate response with the same energy and determination. 

That is why we must doing everything we can to allow the true job creators in our province — our businesses — to grow and employ more people.

There are clear pathways to achieve this objective: first, in facilitating private sector investment that creates jobs. Second, and linked to that, to invest in catalytic infrastructure that responds to the needs of the private sector, making it easier for them to grow and employ more people.  

The Western Cape government is responsible for nearly 29% of all infrastructure spend in the province, mostly through education, health, social and transport infrastructure investment. Since 2019, when my term began, we have spent more than R19bn on infrastructure across our departments. 

Two departments, in particular, are primarily responsible for this spend: the provincial departments of transport & public works, and human settlements. Together they are responsible for spending R18bn on new projects over the next three years and they have a combined total budget of R11.5bn in the 2021/22 adjusted budget.  

However, in the existing structure of our government there is no individual infrastructure department where all the programmes can be carefully considered and aligned to ensure the greatest impact. It is my view that this needs to change, especially if we are going to focus, innovate and do more with less.

I have therefore decided that a new department solely responsible for infrastructure will be created in the Western Cape, through the merger of the human settlements department, and specific components of the transport & public works department, including the Western Cape’s property portfolio and our road programmes. 

This infrastructure department will lead the change, working together with Western Cape local governments, the national government and the private sector, to ensure that we collectively complete quality, catalytic infrastructure projects that will help create jobs in an inclusive way.

Mobility

As part of this change we will create a department responsible for mobility. It will include our transport programmes, such as our financial support to bus and taxi services (including our Blue Dot Taxi pilot), our transport regulation mandate, and our extensive traffic management operations. 

This department will also focus on strategies to improve mobility in the Western Cape, especially in the greater Cape Town area given the serious failings of the national rail network. They will be our lead department for working with and finding solutions with our local governments and, most importantly, the Passenger Rail Agency of SA. 

We also plan to match this new focus on job-creating infrastructure by committing the funding it requires to succeed. While the Western Cape finance & economic opportunities MEC will set out plans to budget for this priority in more detail next month, I can already confirm that we plan to substantially increase our infrastructure spend over the 2022 medium term expenditure framework.

As we m ake these bold changes we must also leverage the lessons we learnt during the Covid-19 crisis. In that time I played a central role in ensuring our government worked together to respond efficiently by introducing a number of management systems, including our extended cabinet, our management committees, right down to our weekly digital press conferences, where we were fully transparent with the people of the Western Cape. 

This was necessary to ensure all levels of government and our own departments worked together to achieve our common goal of preparing for the impact of Covid-19 so that we saved lives.

Jobs cabinet 

I intend to replicate this model in our fight against joblessness so that we achieve the same effect. I will therefore set up an extended jobs cabinet that will consist of our new infrastructure and mobility departments, as well as the department of economic development & tourism, the department of agriculture, and the provincial treasury. I will also include private sector representatives so that we lead with interventions that will unlock growth and help businesses employ more people. 

In addition to infrastructure investment we will also take a number of important steps to help our businesses create jobs. For example, we are establishing an SMME Booster Fund which will support organisations that provide business development support in the Western Cape. Our Red Tape Reduction Unit will also ramp up its efforts to cut red tape. We will focus on resolving the inefficiencies at the Port of Cape Town, especially to improve service levels.

We will scale-up experiential learning programmes and assist companies that want to move to the Western Cape from other provinces and from other countries. This while doing whatever we can to get tourists back to our province, so that this vital sector can once again flourish.

We know that the moment that now presents itself requires bold decisions. The Western Cape Government is fully committed to making use of this moment, so that we don’t only recover, but also do better than before.

• Winde is Western Cape premier.