If small and large companies — local and international — are to make investment decisions, they need confidence in the future
About 40,000 more people in employment in three months; 125,000 more people with jobs in the three months before that; four straight quarters of jobs growth; unemployment receding.
If you’re in politics for the right reasons, there’s no greater joy than seeing numbers like this. They represent real, meaningful change in the lives of the least well off. Stats SA’s most recent Quarterly Labour Force Survey reveals two stubborn truths. First, the unemployment crisis shows no signs of abating, with the national expanded unemployment rate stuck above 42%. Second, there’s a stark contrast between the grim national picture and that of the Western Cape and Cape Town.
That’s not the task of a single office in our administration — it’s a mission that spans every function of the city and its services.Our most important mission is to make the city as competitive and attractive as possible, and to assure potential investors that this will remain the caseArguably the most important aspect is a city’s investment in infrastructure: roads, pipes, grids, and the equipment and vehicles connected to them.
The bulk of this investment will be in water and sanitation, including pipes, pump stations and wastewater treatment plants — particularly in poorer areas. But substantial amounts have also been set aside for critical economic enablers such as public transport. For example, our R5.4bn MyCiti bus service expansion to link Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain with Wynberg and Claremont will be a game-changer for people from those areas as well as businesses along the route.Then there’s electricity.
Finally, there are the hoops businesses have to jump through, and delays they face in being issued with, say, the necessary permits to operate. We’re taking steps to cut red tape and speed up our business-facing services. Our recently launched ease of doing business index is an effort to make ourselves publicly accountable and show us where we need to improve.
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