Only the DA can put a job in every home

11 January 2019

Fellow South Africans,

We are here in Diepsloot today to showcase the Diepsloot Opportunity Centre, which was officially opened by Mayor Mashaba in September last year. This centre is concrete proof of the DA’s passionate commitment to job creation and to expanding opportunities to all. A DA government will put a job in every home in South Africa.

Because the greatest crisis facing South Africa today is that only four out of ten adults have work. This means there are millions of homes in South Africa where not a single person is employed. So, for millions of households, there is no guarantee of food on the table every day.

Just think what that means for adults in those homes, who lack the dignity of being able to provide for their families. Just think what it means for the children in those homes, who go to school on an empty stomach and who grow up never seeing an adult go to work.

This is why this election has to be about jobs. I am absolutely confident that a DA government can put a job in every home.

Because the DA’s approach to job creation works. And there is solid proof of that. Over half of all jobs created in SA in the past year were created in DA governed areas. That is according to Statistics South Africa.

The DA’s approach is to create the conditions in which businesses – both big and small – can start and grow and thrive. This is exactly why we’re rolling out centres such as Diepsloot Opportunity Centre, where we govern.

These centres offer a range of services to small businesses, to help them establish and grow. These centres help people to do their business plans and to register their businesses. And they support jobseekers by helping to put them in touch with employers.

Diepsloot Opportunity Centre is the third such centre we have opened in Johannesburg since 2016 and we’ll be rolling out a total of 14 by the end of the 2020/21 year.

Where we govern, we work hard to open work opportunities for more and more people – especially young people. And our approach is successful. We have attracted over R10 billion of direct investment into Johannesburg since the DA-led government took over the city two years ago.

We have tripled the city’s budget for infrastructure, because without decent infrastructure, business can’t grow and create jobs. And already we are seeing results – the city’s economy is projected to grow at 2,5% this year which is double SA’s projected growth rate.

The DA-led Tshwane government has provided bursaries to 1800 students and learnerships to 300 young people, to give them the skills to be able to access jobs. It has partnered with City Property to create 700 job opportunities in the inner City.

It is strongly supportive of informal traders, and it has to date provided over 16 000 EPWP work opportunities across various programmes and projects in the capital city. And these work opportunities are allocated using a fair, lottery-based system, because the DA is committed to providing fair access to jobs.

The DA has now governed the Western Cape Province for a decade, and our approach has reduced unemployment in that province to the lowest in the country – by a very long way. The Western Cape’s unemployment rate is 13% points lower than the national average.

This proves beyond doubt that the DA’s approach to jobs works, and that the DA is the only party that can put a job in every home.

The 2019 election is your chance to bring real change to SA. If you want the DA to put a job in every home, please check that you are registered to vote by going to check.da.org.za.

The final registration weekend is 26-27 January. If you are a first-time voter or are not yet registered, please make sure you visit the voting station in your voting district between 8am and 5pm on either the Saturday or the Sunday, with either your green ID book, your smartcard ID or a valid Temporary Identity Certificate.

Register to vote DA! Register to put a job in every home! Register to bring change that builds one South Africa for all!

Issued by Mmusi Maimane, Leader of the Democratic Alliance, 11 January 2019