There's a short YouTube video of Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis standing outside the civic centre holding pages he says is Stats SA's Quarterly Labour Force Survey. The video's title is "DA creates 86,000 jobs".
Looking like a pupil who won a medal for good marks, unable to contain himself, he points to a page and says Cape Town has 86,000 more jobs than - I didn't get which period - last quarter or last year.
Recently mayco for economic development James Vos similarly wrote in an advertorial they - he, DA and city - are personally responsible for the city's upward "economic trajectory". Little to no credit for citizens and business who actually do the work.
The DA keep making these unfounded, unprovable claims that they "created" x number new jobs in the Western Cape and Cape Town over a period. When Hill-Lewis was the DA's finance spokesman, he made a speech in Parliament claiming such. I emailed asking for evidence, which he said was then premier Helen Zille and StatsSA. After I replied he/they misread the data and StatsSA never mentions job "creation" or "new" jobs but just gives the numbers, he irritably responded saying I'm maliciously spreading misinformation and ended the debate.
But any economist would say the same: the factors and processes of economic production and economic and job growth are complex, interlinked. It's never as reductive as politicians - Trump and any ANC too - make out to be. Politicians don't create jobs but are responsible for the environment in which trade happens, in Cape Town's and WC's case, the macroeconomic environment of the region must I mostly country because we're in a unitary state.
The 86,000 might only be a blip though. Before HL and DA praise themselves for nothing and spread misinformation themselves, we must wait at least two to three economic cycles to see if it's permanent.
Comments
Post a Comment