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The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the North West notes with shock the recent unemployment figures in the Province.

The statistics made public by StatsSA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey indicated that North West’s real unemployment figure, as per the expanded definition, now stands at 52.2%.

This means that more than half of the working-age population in the province cannot find a job. Out of a labour force of about 1,780 million, only 850 000 persons have a job. The number of unemployed persons in real numbers stands at 930 000.

This is a crisis that requires immediate attention.

The North West Provincial Government must lead the charge against unemployment by ensuring that, in the spirit of cooperative governance, municipalities in the province clean up their act, to bring an end to fruitless, wasteful and unauthorised expenditure, fraud and corruption, and to begin to deliver basic services.

North West towns throughout the province are in an advanced stage of collapse. Basic service delivery like reliable electricity and water supply, sanitation services, the maintenance of roads and regular refuse collection are almost non-existent and erratic at best.

Due to the collapse in local government and the abandonment of basic service delivery, small businesses are closing shop, while big businesses are disinvesting from the North West altogether, as we have seen with Clover in Lichtenburg which resulted in 500 direct jobs lost to the province.

More recently, Deputy Minister Obed Bapela indicated that Supreme Chicken in Mahikeng is considering disinvestment because of poor service delivery. It saw a flurry of activity by provincial government officials to prevent this disinvestment which could have resulted in 2 000 job losses. Thankfully, Supreme Chicken indicated that they would remain in North West, but we do not know for how long.

Businesses can only survive for so long in a province that has basically collapsed.

With the collapse of governance in North West, attracting new investment opportunities to grow the provincial economy to create new jobs remains an impossible task.

If we want to create new jobs in North West, local government will have to start to work in the interest of the people and not in the interest of ANC factions. Failure to do so will result in disaster.

Issued by DA North West Provincial Leader, Leon Basson MP