While South Africa’s job market showed slight improvement, Limpopo remains trapped in rising unemployment and structural challenges.
Limpopo’s jobs bloodbath is deepening as unemployment rises, according to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey.
The survey shows the unemployment rate jumped by 0.6 percentage points, from 34.4% in the first quarter, to 35% in the second quarter, while the country as a whole saw a modest 0.3-percentage point increase in the official unemployment rate.
Premier touts investment pledges
During her state of the province address in February, premier Phophi Ramathuba, said the challenge was to grow Limpopo’s economy to reduce poverty by creating job opportunities.
“We are proud to report to this House that our 4th Investment Conference was a resounding success, raising up to R120 billion in pledges, far surpassing the R50 billion we had targeted.
“I would like to commend the collective efforts towards the realisation of this achievement,” she said.
DA questions impact on jobs
The DA said it was baffled that, despite all the efforts by the premier’s administration, unemployment rose from 34% to 35%.
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The unemployment rate stands at 43.8%, claims the party.
“We face deep-seated economic fragility and structural roadblocks, we need to turbocharge our economy,” said Jacques Smalle, DA spokesperson for economic development, environment and tourism.
Structural problems remain unaddressed
Although the national economy showed improvement, Limpopo was stuck with rising unemployment and structural factors remained unaddressed.
The DA called on the provincial government to implement its plan to turbocharge the economy.
“We must urgently reform our governance, create functional and capacitated provincial and local government, cut wasteful expenditure, conduct spending reviews, and stop bailing out failing state-owned enterprises.”
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