DA Delivers: Cape Town leads in creating opportunities for young people
23 March 2016
In replies to parliamentary questions it was revealed that not only does the City of Cape Town (CoCT) spend more than any other metro on programmes to assist unemployed matriculants or young people to gain employment, but it also has the second highest spend on Extended Public Works Programmes (EPWP).
This is evidence of the DA’s commitment to creating job opportunities for young people and implementing an impartial and corruption free EPWP programme that will benefit all citizens. This is change we will seek to bring to more municipalities in the local government elections later this year.
The figures speak for themselves. In the 2014/15 financial year, the DA-run CoCT spent a total of R71 million on programmes to assist young people to become employed. This is more than Johannesburg and Tshwane combined, and 9 times more than Nelson Mandela Bay.
The City also paid out a total of R176 mllion in wages to EPWP jobs – 7 times more than Nelson Mandela Bay.
This once again illustrates that where the DA governs it is making progress in creating jobs and reducing unemployment. In fact, according to the latest unemployment data, the DA-run Western Cape had the lowest expanded unemployment rate of all the provinces at 22% - far below the national rate of 33.8%.
|
Name of Metropolitan Municipality |
Money budgeted for programmes to assist unemployed matriculants or young people to gain employment in the 2015/16 financial year |
EPWP Wages 2014-15 |
|
City of Cape Town |
R 71 000 000.00 |
R 176 081 155.00 |
|
eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality |
R 47 200 000.00 |
R 144 005 314.00 |
|
City of Tshwane |
R 35 900 000.00 |
R 169 630 527.00 |
|
City of Johannesburg |
R 20 000 000.00 |
R 188 678 230.00 |
|
Mangaung |
R 20 000 000.00 |
R 11 946 018.00 |
|
Ekurhuleni |
R 12 000 000.00 |
R 99 040 036.00 |
|
Nelson Mandela |
R 7 800 000.00 |
R 25 507 476.00 |
|
Buffalo City |
R 2 400 000.00 |
R 3 261 455.00 |
The CoCT is also the only metro that has implemented an impartial EPWP jobs allocation database which has eliminated corruption by officials who hand out jobs to friends and family members. The DA believes that EPWP opportunities should be accessible to all and allocated in a manner that is fair and transparent.
In contrast to the DA’s success in the Western Cape, in the ANC-run Eastern Cape the meagre spend in both Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City on EPWP programmes, and programmes aimed at assisting young people to become employed, has added to the province’s unemployment rate. In fact the Eastern Cape had the highest expanded unemployment rate of any province at 40.3%.
This once again reflects a clear correlation between DA-governance and the expansion of opportunities for all.
In the local government election the DA will continue to strive to make progress to cut corruption and create jobs in more communicates in the interest of building a free and fair South Africa where all citizens can pursue a life they value.
Issued by Kevin Mileham, DA Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, 23 March 2016
