The Democratic Alliance has recently claimed that it is responsible for 75% of South Africa’s job creation, and this has been proven to be true by Africa Check.

The fact-checking group has shown that this claim is substantiated by StatsSA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey for January to March of 2018. Approximately 165 000 jobs were created in the first quarters of 2017 and 2018, with 123 000 of these jobs being generated in the Western Cape.

“Job numbers do fluctuate from quarter to quarter,” Africa Check said, “but the claim is correct for the given period.”

Most of the new jobs created in the Western Cape were in the trade sector, which saw a year-on-year increase of 78 000 jobs. “The balance of new jobs were in five other provinces. There were an estimated 83,000 jobs created in Limpopo, 62,000 in KwaZulu-Natal, 48,000 in the Free State, 22,000 in the Northern Cape and 16,000 in North West,” Africa Check said.

Three provinces showed job losses over the year, and these include the Eastern Cape (with 45 000 job losses), Mpumalanga (with 20 000 job losses) and Gauteng (with 76 000). Effectively, this means that the Gauteng province lost the most jobs between the first quarters of 2017 and 2018.

Beverley Schäfer, DA spokesperson for Economic Development, Tourism, and Agriculture in the Western Cape, said that the province’s job creation has grown the City of Cape Town’s economy faster than any other city on the continent.  “Through Wesgro, which is funded by the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape government, the City of Cape Town was ranked 21st for its Foreign Direct Investment strategy by the Financial Times’ Global Cities of the Future Index last year, the only city in Africa to make the list,” Schäfer said. “As a result, the City of Cape Town is now home to more than 60% of South Africa’s information and communications technology start-ups, and 65% of South Africa’s new renewable energy component manufacturing is now based in Cape Town.”

Schäfer added that in the tourism sector, Airbnb recently reported that it had grown by 86% in the Western Cape in 2017 alone. Cape Town now accounts for 25% of the company’s revenue on the entire continent. “This has added R5-billion into the City’s economy,” she said.

Cape Town is expected to continue this strong economic growth through policy certainty, effective governance and strategic marketing. Schäfer attributes the Western Cape’s low unemployment rate to this as well.

The city’s two main contributions to the country’s national GDP are the tourism and agriprocessing sectors. “Cape Town exports the largest amounts of agricultural goods and products such as wine, grapes, stone and deciduous fruit in South Africa, while becoming Africa’s leading tourism destination,” she said. “Cape Town Air Access, which seeks to create direct flight links to Cape Town to boost tourism and investment, has brought in 750 000 more inbound flight seats to Cape Town since it was launched in 2015, increasing the growth of international terminal passengers by 20%. This year alone, an additional 150 000 more inbound flight seats will be secured. Tourism in the Western Cape has grown by 7,5% between the 4th Quarter of 2016 and the 4th.”

 

Changes in the Western Cape employment sector (Source: Africa Check)

 

Provincial changes in the employment sector (Source: Africa Check)

 

Picture: Pixabay

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Lucinda is a hard news writer who occasionally dabbles in lifestyle writing, and recent journalism graduate. She is a proud intersectional feminist, and is passionate about actively creating a world which is free of discrimination and inequality.