DA CALLS ON TSHWANE COUNCIL TO FIGHT FOR CITY JOBS

Jobs in Tshwane’s automotive sector may be on the line because of yet another job killing bill before Parliament.

The United States is currently completing an “out of cycle” review of South Africa’s benefits under the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA).

AGOA gives South African businesses, including the automotive sector, beneficial access to US markets, by-passing all manner of trade restrictions.

South Africa’s AGOA benefits, which support our successful automotive sector, are a shimmer of hope in an otherwise depressing economic outlook.

Tshwane, which houses employers like BMW, Ford and Nissan, relies heavily on jobs in automotive manufacturing and components companies.

Yet these jobs may be jeopardised if South Africa loses the favour of United States lawmakers and businesses by breaching the terms of AGOA.

Provoking the ire of our United States trading partners is a proposed amendment to the Private Security Industry Regulation Act.

If passed into law, the bill will cap foreign ownership of security companies operating in South Africa.

Most of the security companies that will be affected by this anti-business and anti-free market measure are US owned.

The DA has therefore tabled a motion for debate at the next meeting of the Tshwane City Council against any law which threatens city jobs.

The motion calls on national government to desist from taking any action that threatens South Africa’s AGOA benefits and therefore jobs in our city’s automotive sector.

By passing the DA motion, local lawmakers in South Africa’s capital city will send a powerful message to national government: hands off Tshwane jobs!

Cilliers Brink

DA Tshwane Shadow MMC for Economic Development & Spatial Planning