Jobs Crisis: Only growth can turn escalating crisis around 

29 October 2019

The announcement by Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) that the unemployment rate has reached a record-breaking 29,1% shows that all of the lip service paid to reform by the Ramaphosa government does not count for much in the real world - only action and real reform counts. So long as this government delays meaningful reform, our economic and unemployment crisis will only escalate.

Economic growth, and only growth, can turn around this escalating crisis. Minister Mboweni faces the urgent task, in his Medium Term Budget Policy Statement tomorrow, of reining in debt and expenditure, and spurring the confidence in private sector investment that is a pre-requisite for growth.

The DA’s MTBPS proposal presented yesterday made it clear that government cannot afford to continue putting off difficult decisions needed to turn around the economy.

A key recommendation of the DA’s proposals is for government to cut the bloated public sector wage bill, saving R168 billion over the next three years. This would keep the budget deficit, and national debt, at stable rates, helping growth.

With over 10 million South Africans looking for work or having given up looking for work, the DA expects Minister Mboweni to present bold proposals that would stop and reverse the escalating unemployment crisis, and return our economy to growth.

Issued by Geordin Hill Lewis, DA Shadow Minister of Finance, 29 October 2019