ALAN WINDE: The Western Cape is working to uplift its residents through jobs

Nothing gives a person dignity like a job. Nothing stops a bullet like a job. This has become my mantra, an adage that speaks to how having a job not only helps one become an active economic citizen, but more importantly gives one a sense of purpose, worth and dignity. Job creation also addresses the root causes of much of the social malaise, poverty and crime that plagues our society.  

The Western Cape government is investing in housing, healthcare, schooling and critical services for our growing province. I am proud of what we have been able to achieve under difficult circumstances. But creating an enabling economy where jobs are created means so much more. Employment is the springboard for people and households, opening them up to multiple other opportunities. If we can get this right, as overwhelming as it is, then we can do so much more. 

I took a firm stand in the build-up to a call for a national shutdown because I firmly believe we create economic freedom not by shutting down an economy but by opening it up and making it as easy as possible for people to go to work.  

Our efforts as a government to nurture an enabling environment for job creation are paying off, as evidenced by the latest quarterly employment statistics.  Of the 169,000 jobs created nationally in the third and fourth quarters of 2022, the majority were in the Western Cape. Nationally, the unemployment rate has retreated ever so slightly, which is added good news.  

All this positive news comes amid our worsening energy crisis. To some, this is an anomaly but I am not as perplexed. In part, it comes down to fast-tracking services and cutting needless red tape to free the potential of businesses, particularly small businesses.

We may not now have a mandate as a provincial government to generate electricity, but we are able to clear the way, as far as possible, for investors and businesses to grow in our province. Making it easier for them to operate means they can grow. And if a business or company grows, it can employ more staff.

Still sceptical? You don’t need to take my word for it, just go back to the numbers. From January to November 2022 our province passed more than R34bn worth of building plans. This is an increase of 27% compared to the previous year. This puts the Western Cape ahead of Gauteng, the country’s “economic capital”.

Even more impressive is that the province is responsible for nearly a third of the total value of building plans passed in the entire country over that period. This is just one important metric to measure job creation and confidence in our province’s economy.   

In my state of the province address I said that we want to turn the province into a construction site. Our infrastructure drive will be further cemented when our infrastructure department is fully launched in April. This is a sector bristling with opportunity given the urgent need for us to stay ahead of the curve as more people choose the Western Cape as their home.

Our partner, the City of Cape Town, is also pulling up its sleeves and donning its hard hat to accelerate infrastructure investment and development. It aims to grow infrastructure investment by 110% over the next three years. This means more people in the construction sector remain employed and more can be given a job. 

One other important strategy we have in our arsenal to fight unemployment is our Growth For Jobs plan, which is being finalised. It is a bold strategy that sets out to grow the provincial economy by 4%-6% by 2035 and to stimulate growth to achieve a R1-trillion provincial GDP target over the next 12 years. This translates to about 600,000 new jobs.  

An associated enabler of job creation is transport and mobility. To keep our economy moving we need to pay special attention to public transport, especially given that the country’s passenger rail service has been run into the ground by national government. We know access to reliable, safe and affordable transport is essential to turn job seekers into job holders.

In this area we are also taking urgent action. We have a new mobility MEC in Ricardo Mackenzie, who had little choice but to hit the ground running. In his short time in office, Mackenzie, along with myself and the City of Cape Town, managed to avert a minibus taxi stayaway that had been called by Santaco, which based on previous stayaways could have been accompanied by violence and prevented tens of thousands of people from going to work and school. This would have been an added setback to an economy already damaged by load-shedding. 

The key ingredient in bringing all these employment creation strands together is helping the private sector — from multi-million-rand companies to spaza shops — to grow. At the core of our economy are our residents. The citizens of our province are the linchpin of our economy. They wake up each morning, often earlier than needs be, due to the ongoing blackouts, to get to work, bring home an income to feed their families, pay rent and keep our economy moving forward. 

Going back to my mantra of “Nothing gives a person dignity like a job”, this at times is more of a rallying call that if we are to address poverty effectively, we must build partnerships to create more jobs.   

• Winde is Western Cape premier.