The DA has repeatedly claimed that through their sole efforts they're creating jobs in the Western Cape, and, therefore, unemployment is the lowest in the country. The latest is Western Cape MEC for finance and economic opportunities Mireille Wenger (March 23) and Premier Alan Winde.
Both also mention, compared to nationally, the WC has a higher quality of life (HDI) and lower inequality - a negligibly lower Gini is purportedly proof of their success (note it's their success, not the people's who make the region what it is).
Several years ago various DA members including then leader Mmusi Maimane and finance spokesman Geordin Hill-Lewis claimed the DA in the WC "created" between 400,000 and 600,000 "new jobs [sic]" (the number varied depending on the person speaking) between 2009 and 2019. They used either the official or expanded (discouraged jobseeker) unemployment rates, whichever was favourable to their interpretation of unemployment numbers. Incidentally, at the time Limpopo had about the same official unemployment rate as WC.
I emailed two of the DA MPs who said these things, one of them Hill-Lewis, asking for proof. The other never responded but Hill-Lewis sent a PowerPoint presentation of premier Helen Zille's to the WC government, purportedly quoting StatsSA.
The source for these false job creation claims was thus revealed: Zille. But they misunderstood StatsSA's unemployment data and how the economy creates jobs. It's certainly not by government, except for an already bloated, inefficient public sector (the WC DA's plans to increase the size of the legislature has run into budget tightening).
StatsSA doesn't use the words "job creation" or "new jobs" in its Quarterly Labour Force surveys but gives the figures as they are at survey dates. Even then the results of unemployment are an estimate at best. I said as much to Hill-Lewis but he replied I was malicious and terminated the exchange.
Historically the Western Cape has had a lower than national unemployment. In 2009, until the ANC ran the province, it was 19.2% (national 24.3%). WC's quality of life (HDI) is also better.
The DA cannot claim credit for all this except governance where it affects investment decisions (governments don't create jobs though). In fact, Cape Town and WC was better managed than the rest of the country under the ANC and before 1994 too.
There are various reasons for WC and Cape Town, which has the bulk of the province's population and economic activity, being different to the rest of SA: different racial demographics; a comparatively better educated, especially whites and browns, population; civic pride at doing well that belies the slaap stad image; Cape Town's beauty that makes tourism a significant economic contributor and so on. (Unfortunately, under the ANC's naive understanding of international trade, the clothing sector that supported up to100,000 workers and their families almost disappeared within a few years.)
People shall visit the province whoever runs it so it's hubris for politicians to take credit for Nature's gift. Or that financial and other companies have made Cape Town their headquarters.
The DA appear unable to understand, or they do and continue to misrepresent, Western Cape is part of a unitary state and must abide by national laws and policies and by a structural environment that (negativity under the ANC) affects economic activity and society at large.
While regions may encourage investment in individual cases, investors look at a package of national and regional conditions, mainly economic fundamentals and access to labour and infrastructure, before making a long-term commitment.
While the Western Cape has competitive advantages, apparently tourism the only one they're promoting, South Africa is not investor-friendly, one of the main reasons national growth is at or near 0% over a long period. This doesn't even include the significant effect on the economy of Eskom's and Transnet's dysfunction, crime, corruption and lately the potential impact on trade of the ANC's dubious and reckless foreign policy forays.
For all their good intentions, the DA have no control of any of these. Whether we like it or not, WC is tied to the fortunes of SA. For all their proselytizing, Winde et al know this which is why they introduced a provincial bill to define and explore provincial powers, a bill the ANC deem the beginnings of secession.
The election silly season is here and politicians are making outlandish claims like Ramaphosa's that SA is better off now than 30 years ago. I don't blame Winde and DA for boasting about their modest success - the ANC set a very low bar that ordinarily any competent administration ought to manage quite well.
But over a long period the DA has been saying things, often from the legislature, that are unprovable or questionable or both. They've come to believe it just as the ANC believed they "saved" SA from apartheid, and despite the evidence to the contrary, we're doing fine.
Mostly, though, economic successes in the province - and one can discuss what these may be because not every investment is for the greater good - are not (necessarily) due to the DA's interventions but the private sector doing its thing despite adversity.
Two more points. First, economic development is centred around Cape Town Metro while rural Western Cape is mostly neglected. There poverty and unemployment is high. It's disingenuous for Winde to brag about lowering unemployment when typically rural areas don't benefit, and have not benefitted, from investment.
Second, Winde, like Cape Town mayor Hill-Lewis about Cape Town's budget, says the province's budget is "pro-poor". What does that even mean?
A budget is the official allocation of money for a period. It's neutral, not pro or anti anything. Unless the bulk of the money is spent on projects and programmes specifically benefitting the poor in preference to the usual line-item and departmental expenditure, it is not and cannot be pro-poor. Constitutionally the poor must receive a level of service that's available to all citizens.
And note Mireille and Alan, a larger government, with well-off bureaucrats, is not pro-poor.
Alternatively, if it the budget is pro-poor now, what was it before? Pro-rich? If it is pro-poor, why are the Western Cape's poor still poor and unemployment worse 15 years after the DA took power?
This supposed pro-poor budgeting is merely politicians' cant and spin to hide the fact the poor, over 50% of South Africa's population, are on the periphery of their consciousness, that is, until elections. As always, the middle and moneyed classes' interests take precedence.
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