Sol Plaatje must turn streetlights on for festive season
by Andrew Louw – DA Northern Cape Provincial Leader
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Date: 05 August 2018
Release: Immediate
The Democratic Alliance in the Northern Cape will request that the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature debates creating a growing and reliable economic environment which can support the sustained creation of sustainable jobs in the Northern Cape.
We will table this request as soon as the Legislature resumes its operations after the current constituency period.
Our request comes in light of the recently published unemployment figures for the province. Not only does the expanded unemployment rate now exceed 42%, but the Northern Cape has the highest rate of young people who are not employed, not pursuing further education and not otherwise economically active.
A combination of ineptitude and corruption on the side of the ANC-led provincial government, which has negatively impacted on economic growth and job creation, means that more than 44% of our young people are sitting at home.
To have so many of our young people at home is to set the stage for a humanitarian crisis. The Northern Cape is already the province where the most households struggle to afford food; if we continue down an economic path which exclude our young people from becoming economically active, we doom them and their families to a future of hunger, deprivation and need.
We also must have greater clarity on the announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa that the ANC will push forward with an amendment to the Constitution to allow for expropriation without compensation,which undermines property rights and will make South Africans tenants on state land, not owners.
The pillars of the provincial economy are, historically, mining and agriculture. Plans to expand into beneficiation may be derailed if investors fear that their property will be taken from them overnight.
It is crucial that, as public representatives of the province, we must have an open and honest debate about these issues.
The DA in the Northern Cape is committed to ushering change that builds a working economy and affords the many unemployed people of the Province access to jobs.
Media Enquiries
Andrew Louw
DA Northern Cape Provincial Leader
082 383 6914
Tharina Whittaker
Northern Cape Provincial Researcher
071 251 5558
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