Limpopo Premier Dr Phophi Ramathuba says she is committed to helping create jobs in the province to secure support for the ANC, since people have become impatient with its promises of jobs that never materialise.
Ramathuba made the comments on Saturday during the Progressive Youth Alliance summit of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) Limpopo, held at Karibu Lodge, outside Tzaneen.
Ramathuba, who took on the role of the province's first woman premier last month, emphasised that unemployment remains the greatest concern among young people.
She acknowledged that promises of employment opportunities have been made to them for far too long.
“Our people are getting impatient, because we have been telling them that we will create jobs. They are getting impatient because every day we tell them that we are reviving Seshego industrial park.
“Every day we are reviving Thohoyandou industrial park and Nkowankowa industrial park. They are asking us, when?” Ramathuba said.
“But once our people start to see jobs, we won't even need to campaign, come 2026. They will just go and vote for us,” said the former Limpopo MEC of Health.
Meanwhile, last month IOL News reported that the unemployment rate in South Africa has risen to 32.9% in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024 from 32.1% in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023.
This is according to the figures by Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) as released in their Quarterly Labour Force Survey for 2024.
According to the research, the number of unemployed people rose from 7.89 million in Q4 of 2023 to 8.22 million in Q1 of 2024.
“The number of unemployed people increased by 330,000 to 8.22 million. Additionally, the number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement, decreased by 214,000 to 13.1 million, while discouraged work-seekers decreased by 1,000 in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the fourth quarter of 2023,” according to a statement.
The provinces that recorded increases in employment when compared with the previous quarter, were KwaZulu-Natal (35,000), Gauteng (26,000) and the Northern Cape (4,000).
StatsSA said that the provinces that recorded decreases in employment were the Western Cape (17,000), followed by North West (13,000), Mpumalanga (8,000), the Eastern Cape (4,000) and Limpopo (3,000). The Free State remained unchanged.
IOL