ROAD TO 2024 ELECTIONS
‘Jobs, jobs, jobs’ — DA’s Winde makes employment promise to young people in Western Cape
With just over 40 days to go until the elections, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde took the DA’s pledge to create 800,000 jobs in the province to Athlone, where he addressed young people at a call centre.
Democratic Alliance (DA) Western Cape premier candidate Alan Winde was on the campaign trail on Tuesday in Athlone on the Cape Flats as he highlighted his party’s pledge to create 800,000 jobs in the next term of office.
Winde, the provincial incumbent, is leading the party’s cause to get re-elected as the governing party in Western Cape. In just over 40 days, on 29 May, South Africans will go to the polls to elect leaders at the national and provincial levels.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Elections 2024
On Tuesday, Winde’s message was “jobs, jobs, jobs” as he spoke outside a call centre.
He said, “Here in this province, we’ve got to make sure that we are really zooming in on young people and creating opportunities for young people.”
DA Western Cape Premier Candidate Alan Winde addresses young people at a call centre training facility in Athlone on 16 April 2024. (Photo: Sune Payne)
He referred to the Western Cape’s unemployment rate, which is 20%, according to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), the lowest in South Africa.
“So it’s only the DA and only the Western Cape that has this track record, and this is the province that works.”
He said voters needed to vote for the DA to keep the province working.
In the 2019 general elections, the DA received 55.45% of the provincial vote and is determined to hold on to its jewel in the crown of governance. However, this outright majority is being targeted by parties that hope to bring the DA under 50% and force it into a coalition.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Changing of the guard? Small parties snap at DA’s heels in Western Cape
Appeal to youth
Winde’s visit to the call centre, which trains young people for work in the sector, highlighted a booming industry that offers many employment opportunities.
He spoke to young people, some as young as 18 and entering work for the first time, who had been in training for two weeks. A trainer told Winde the recruits were taught emotional intelligence skills such as being impervious to insults from rude customers.
“Like a politician,” Winde quipped, to laughter from the students.
After speaking to the students about his career — from a businessman to a legislator and now, a premier — Winde encouraged the students to become entrepreneurs and — pointing to his grey hair — “We will need more politicians.”
According to IEC statistics, by 16 April, there were almost 60,000 registered voters between the ages of 18 and 19 in Western Cape and 456,000 aged between 20 and 29.
Winde said it was difficult to get young people registered and voting.
“It’s got to be a focus because young people must understand that it’s their future,” he said.
Track record
When asked whether the pledge of 800,000 jobs was merely electioneering, Winde said: “I think the one thing about the Democratic Alliance and in this campaign is that I’ve got a track record, so you can look back over the last five years … you can look back over the last 15 years and you can say, ‘What has been said and what has been done?’ and now you have a look at what’s being said again.
“And that’s if I say 800,000 jobs …. I mean, that’s a stretch … I’m pushing that boundary, but I’ve got a track record that shows, the track record behind me shows that businesses come here, they invest here, they enable job creation.”
Winde wasn’t specific about how the province would create 800,000 jobs but said the Western Cape government’s “Growth for Jobs Strategy” would “invest heavily in infrastructure to enable businesses; cut red tape that gets in the way of doing business; grow investor confidence; promote the tourism sector; and ensure that our agricultural sector continues to thrive as one of the major job creators in the province”.
Winde told Daily Maverick that in the run-up to the elections, he would highlight aspects of the DA’s manifesto to show voters the party’s track records on issues ranging from jobs to safety to energy. DM
The truth, contrary to Winde’s claim, is that the narrow unemployment rate increased (got worse) under the DA’s watch in the Western Cape.
According to StatsSA’s QLFS data, the unemployment rate increased in the Western Cape from 16,9% (Q4 2008) to 20,3% (Q4 2023).
The DA inherited an unemployment rate far below 20% from the ANC and is now claiming what is not theirs to claim.
Can one trust anything the DA says? I think not.
The truth is that the WC has the lowest unemployment rate of all 9 provinces. Credit where credit is due.
The rest of the country, under the ANC’s watch, increased from 22% to 32% over a similar time period. So the Western Cape was already 5% better off in 2008 (under the DAs watch) and is now 12% better off.
Yes, I think we can trust the DA a lot more than you or the ANC.
You might want to look at the national unemployment rate then versus now and then compare this to the various provinces over the same period.
You can’t just compare Q4 2008 with Q4 2023. You need to look at the full picture as there was a pandemic in-between and DA only took over WC in 2009. If you look at the past 10 years (Q4 2013 vs Q4 2023) the unemployment rate in WC was on a decline until COVID. There was then a huge spike in unemployment with COVID. Unemployment rate is now back to pre COVID levels.
Stuff and nonsense……but you know that don’t you…… all factors need to be taken into account, including migrants into the W Cape, population growth and relativity to other provinces
Talents like Winde, Hill-Lewis and Pappas, led by that gray man Steenhuisen. Brings to mind the phrase, “Lions led by a donkey”.
The elections postmortem in June/July should see the insipid Steenhuisen turfed out, or is that reserved for “experiments” like Maimane?
If the average ANC voter had realised that by voting for the ANC over the last 3o years they have kept themselves and their family members out of having a job.
Hopefully the penny drops this year.