The Free State has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, with an estimated 44% of the province’s working population unemployed, according to the latest StatsSA Quarterly Labour Force Survey.
“Of the 2.9 million people in the province, at least one million are still dependent on social grants, and 648 000 people between 15 and 64 years of age remain economically inactive,” the survey reveals.
Democratic Alliance leader in the province Roy Jankielsohn said on Thursday that the province could not afford another five years of job shedding and economic shrinkage under an ANC-run government.
He said government had failed to cultivate an environment conducive to attracting investment and promoting new businesses to boost job creation.
“The governing party is entirely inward-focused and has taken every opportunity to advance the party’s own agenda and enrich an elite few within the organisation. During a conversation with a resident in Dealesville, the impact of the ANC on our economy and people was clear.
“The man was a former post office employee about to finish his last day of work due to the post office being closed down after a fire and the retrenchment of 4700 employees, which is the sad reality for many others who have served in parastatals that have been run down by the ANC government,” he said.
Speaking to 37-year-old Thabang Mphuthi from the Lejweleputswa district in the Free State, Jankielsohn said there was no hope for them to find employment in the province or the country at large.
Mphuthi said that when the government advertised jobs, they stated they were looking for people younger than 35.
“There’s no hope for us generally; if it’s not the experience, it’s age that is not on our side. All that we can survive with is with these odd jobs that we get just to get by. The dreams of having families and houses would remain just that – dreams,” he said despondently.
In his address at a Workers’ Day rally in Durban on Wednesday, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula claimed his government would create 2.5 million work opportunities within the next five years.
He said that over the past few years, the ANC had been meeting the basic needs of working people, and had instituted a social wage through housing, electricity, water, sanitation, education, health, public transport and infrastructure.
According to the fourth quarter 2023 StatsSA survey, the unemployment rate in South Africa was at 32.1%, with the majority of those unemployed having an education level below matric (Grade 12), while those who had completed matric comprised around 34% of the total unemployed.
The Star