In the Western Cape, Premier Alan Winde is advocating a shift in approach towards economic development.
He has emphasised the importance of building the economy and generating employment opportunities rather than relying solely on increasing grants.
Winde has introduced the Cape’s Growth for Jobs (G4J) strategy, aiming to propel the local economy to reach the milestone of a R1-trillion economy.
Projections suggest that with this strategy in place, the Western Cape could achieve annual economic growth rates of between 4% and 6%, effectively meeting the growing demands of its population.
“In the Western Cape, everything we do is about creating jobs. It is this government’s obsession to keep building an enabling jobs ecosystem, where we are empowering the private sector to create as many jobs as possible,”
Winde said recently.Between the second quarter of 2022 and the second quarter of 2023, the Western Cape’s official unemployment rate decreased by 6.6% to 20.9%.
This is the lowest unemployment rate in the country and substantially lower than any other province, according to Winde, who said the province accounted for some two-thirds of all jobs created in South Africa.“Of the 169 000 jobs created in the country in the fourth quarter of the 2022/23 financial year, 167 000 of them were created here in the Western Cape,” said Winde
- Read the rest in this week's Freight Features section about "The Cape".
