The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Blade Nzimande, says Cape Town’s unemployment rate claims are not accurate. Picture: Michael Walker
Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology Dr Blade Nzimande has taken Western Cape Premier Alan Winde to task over his claims that the province is the best when it comes to the issue of unemployment.
Winde was speaking during yesterday’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) debate in Parliament.
“This province, Mr President, is where jobs are created. We have the lowest unemployment rate by far. When the honourable Chief Whip of the opposition was here, she mentioned the number, seven out of ten young people in this country do not have a job. How shocking is that? Seven out of ten people do not have a job. In this province, eight out of ten people have jobs,” Winde claimed.
However, in his response to Winde, Nzimande said the DA ought to be ashamed as this is not a true reflection of what is happening.
“We ought to be ashamed, because the DA is telling a false narrative here. All the things you claim you have done have been made possible by the advances made by the ANC. Where you fail, you blame the ANC. I want to ask you a simple thing, if you are so committed to changing the lives of ordinary people, why are you not selecting poor students from the Western Cape to go and study medicine in Cuba? You are the only province that does not actually do that,” Nzimande said.
Nzimande pointed out the inequality that exists in the province and the skewed delivery of services where coloured and black people get poor services while the best is reserved for its predominantly white urban population.
“I thought you were talking about a tale of two cities. What is happening in Cape Town and the predominantly white suburbs as compared to Khayelitsha and Crossroads where the schools are rotten? In the name of what you are actually talking about, you can’t claim that you do not have money. You say what you are doing is because you are using your resources,” he said.
In 2022, the province recorded more than 300 000 jobs, giving it one of the lowest levels of unemployment, which is said to be at 25%, compared to the national rate of unemployment, which is said to have fallen to 31.9% in Q3 of 2023, the lowest in a year, from 32.6% in the prior period.
The Star
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