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Department of Social Development has no desire to break the cycle of poverty as it constantly fails to assist needy residents

Madam Speaker,

This past year, with the national hard lockdown, precipitated a shock to the economy and heightened the impact of the many social ills affecting our communities causing additional loss of income, deepening poverty, unemployment, and resulting in increasing reports of domestic violence, hunger, and social injustice.

Our formal unemployment rate is 34.9% with a broad unemployment rate of 46,6%. This means, almost half of our people are unemployed.

This could have been the time for this department to shine and fulfil its core mandate to break the cycle of poverty. Sadly, it will forever be known as the department that underperforms and underspends its budget by R438 million.

Our people had nowhere to go and needed shelters, yet the department only achieved 30% of its target for shelters and despite receiving R88 million from the Treasury that they cannot account for. The department also wants to reduce 42 shelters to 24 when our municipalities are crying out for additional funding to upgrade existing infrastructure for additional homeless shelters.

The department also underperformed in Early Childhood Development centres (ECD) by 27%, while we have many centres across the province that are not registered or receiving regular maintenance.

The NPOs that have selflessly been caring and looking after our most vulnerable members of society have also experienced financial challenges as the subsidy payments were often received late and with donations having been dried up. This resulted in caregivers not being paid their salaries on time, where some could not afford transport to and from work, leaving patients and paraplegics stranded and without hygienic care.

In the East Rand, Old age homes were closed leaving beneficiaries out in the cold to fend for themselves. Safe houses for children were also experiencing financial constraints as children suffered from starvation.

I intervened in facilitating a meeting between the department officials and an NGO that has been battling for more than five years to get additional funding. The meeting was a success, something that the department could have done a long time ago without any external interventions.

Instead of being able to hold its head high and assist its needy residents, the department should be ashamed for failure to assist during this difficult period because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The department has underperformed dismally in fulfilling its mandate. It has shown that it has no desire to break the cycle of poverty or change the future of our most deserving people.

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Confessions Of A Reluctant Politician

As a young boy growing up the small village of GaRamotse in Hammanskraal, I was as far removed from the circles of power as it was possible to be.

That I stand before you today as a politician is as much of a surprise to me as it probably was to you when my candidacy was announced.

So allow me to tell you why I have decided to run for Mayor of Johannesburg.

My relationship with the media extends back to my youth when I worked with the media, such as to expose worker exploitation in Babelegi in the late 70s.

I regard the media as honourable men and women on the side of truth.

The success of our new-found democracy is dependant on the media’s robust engagement with issues that affect our country.

I am 56 years old and I’ve lived under the worst of South Africa’s apartheid laws.

The divisive policies promoted by the National Party government from the late 40s to the late 80s determined every aspect of my life as a black man. The policies determined where I could live. Where my parents could work. How often I could see my mother. The education I was entitled to. The quality of life I could expect to live.

When I finished high school I went to university, determined to educate myself out of poverty. However, it wasn’t to be, and during my second year, I abandoned my studies after student protests.

At that time it would have been so easy to join my friends on a shebeen stool and drink my life away. But I’d been poor, poor enough to only have water to ease the hunger.

I realised that hard work and opportunity was the only way I’d save myself from a lifetime of adversity.

Like millions of other black men and women I was forced to feed the apartheid economic machinery, working at jobs that paid menial salaries. Did I deserve a better salary? Of course I did. Were the employers exploiting me? Of course they were.

I fought back by exploiting the few opportunities that came my way.

I used each job as a stepping-stone to get a better job. Within 33 months I bought my own car – a blue Toyota Corolla that I drove off the showroom floor despite the fact that I’d never been behind the wheel of a car in my life!

I started my black hair care business with a R30 000 loan and I partnered with a white chemist who could create the formulas I needed.

Non-racialism and goodness was never an abstract idea for me. I saw it in action.

Policy at the time dictated that I couldn’t own a business in South Africa, so I opened my factory in the homeland of Bophuthatswana.

By the time South Africa’s first democratic election was held in 1994, I was enjoying a successful business career.

And political freedom had arrived at last for black South Africans.

I have always been animated by the belief that true freedom is the freedom for each person to be whatever he or she wants to be. It was this belief that drove me to succeed in business, and now drives me as I run for public office.

That’s why, in 2014, I publicly announced my membership of the DA. Then, in December 2015, when President Zuma fired Minister Nene, I realised that sitting comfortably on the sidelines with my membership card in my pocket was no use to anyone.

I was reminded of what Martin Luther King Jnr referred to as “the fierce urgency of now.” And so I immediately made myself available to stand for the DA in the Johannesburg mayoral bid.

And now I am a politician. I’ve been on the campaign trail for nearly four months, and experienced every nook of the city during this short time.

I’ve seen a city that is falling apart at the seams, one that is constantly being re-stitched together by people who refuse to give up.

It is these people that keep me going, people who despite having been given up on by the government, refuse to give up on themselves.

Make no mistake, during the golden age of Mr Mandela’s presidency, solid progress was made to deliver basic services, infrastructure and housing in the City of Johannesburg.

That progress has now stalled mainly because jobs dried up. With jobs, people can buy their own homes, taking the pressure off the state to provide homes.

With jobs, we have more revenue to spend on the poor. With jobs, we can lay pipelines of opportunity. With jobs, we have the means to build infrastructure fit for a dynamic city.

Every day I speak to disadvantaged men and women who have no job, who have no access to the most basic of human rights.

Likewise do I speak to advantaged men and women in the City who will help me to govern the city once the DA takes office.

It is as a result of all these interactions that I have developed my vision for the city of Johannesburg.

I am not ashamed to say that I am an entrepreneur at heart. And I believe that this will serve me well in public office.

I want to see results, I want to understand the feasibility of projects, and I will not lie to my voters. When drawing up my vision for Johannesburg, uppermost in my mind were the following questions: Can I deliver? Am I being honest to voters?

I am not asking voters for a blank cheque. I am asking for five years.  When I engage with residents, I am quite candid with them: if I don’t deliver on my vision for Johannesburg, vote me out.

But this campaign is bigger than Johannesburg itself. After all, Johannesburg contributes nearly 17% to the country’s GDP. The great South African story cannot be rewritten if Johannesburg is not transformed.

If Johannesburg works, South Africa works. – That is my mantra in this campaign.

It is heart breaking to witness joblessness on the scale that I see every day. Joblessness affects millions of South Africans – especially young black people who have never been employed and who feel that they never will work.

I know how business works. I’ve got a 30-year track record of creating thousands of jobs.

I know that with jobs the DA can eradicate obstacles to opportunities and build the kind of city that everyone wants to call home. A properly managed, dynamic city is the bedrock of innovation and change.

Our vision is to create a city at work over the next five years, with an abundance of job opportunities.

We will connect people to training and employment opportunities, and help them find jobs in these new businesses.

We will eradicate red tape and restrictions. I will review and amend by-laws that obstruct business within my first 100 days of office. I will work toward creating a business environment that attracts businesses to the city.

The City of Johannesburg owns many buildings that will be audited and identified to provide affordable commercial spaces for small businesses and shops to reverse the inner city’s decline and bring business back to the City.

I want the city to facilitate development of people and their ideas.

People who are earning are able to access capital and improve their lives. Smart local government is a strategic facilitator and we will connect aspirant entrepreneurs to microfinance and loans to facilitate home ownership and give the impoverished a pathway out of poverty.

You see, in the end, every part of my vision hinges upon creating jobs. It is the golden thread that connects it. With jobs we can expand the tax base. This means more services, more homes and less crime and social decay.

I’d like to thank you for being here. You have an enormous role to play in defending our democracy when our institutions are under threat. Perhaps your role has never been as critical as it is today.

I am confident that our bold vision for the City of Johannesburg is defined by what we stand for, not what we stand against. I am standing here.

But my heart is with those who are jobless on the dusty streets much the same as where I grew up.

They are the people we are fighting for in this campaign.

 

Media enquiries:

Willie Venter

060 963 8260

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DA Debates Workers’ Day

Note to editors: The following speeches were delivered in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature today by the DA Gauteng Shadow MEC of Social Development Refiloe Nt’sekhe MPL, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC of COGTA&HS, Fred Nel MPL, and DA Spokesperson on Community Safety, Michele Clarke MPL, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC of Education, Khume Ramulifho MPL, during a debate on Workers’ Day.

 

Speech by: Refiloe Nt’sekhe MPL

“High unemployment rate casts shadow on Worker’s day”

  • We cannot celebrate a country spiraling on a downward trend where over 700 jobs are lost per day.
  • The economy is not growing fast enough, corruption under ANC watch has been rampant, and higher education opportunities are few if you are poor.
  • It is equally shocking to note that the exposure of young South Africans to hunger is increasing. That is why I say, we cannot celebrate the freedom of workers while forgetting that so many are not working.
  • More importantly, the establishment of workers day is about a culture of human and worker rights and to ensure that these are enshrined in the national law. The real fight for today remains ensuring all South Africans economically active.

The full speech can be obtained here.

 

Speech by: Fred Nel MPL

“South Africa’s economic growth too low to create employment”

  • Unions started out to improve the working conditions of workers especially those who worked in dirty and unsafe factories.
  • One could argue that unions have morphed into organisations reaching beyond their core function in society.
  • It is difficult to celebrate this day when a quarter of our population do not have employment opportunities available to them.
  • South Africa’s economic growth rate is too low to create jobs, in fact jobs are being cut as a result of this low growth, however, the situation can be turned around through the DA’s Vision 2029.

The full speech can be obtained here.

 

Speech by: Michele Clarke MPL

“Workers’ day should focus on transformation and job creation”

  • Histories that should never be taken for granted as they lead the way in establishing the rights and opportunities we enjoy today
  • For too many South Africans the political freedom achieved in 1994 has not been matched with economic freedom under the current government.  The fact that, one out of every four South Africans, does not have a job is in an indictment on the notion of economic freedom.
  • Workers day should be focused on transformation and escaping poverty.
  • Commitment to economic transformation is a priority for the DA in government. Where the DA governs, 80% of tenders over R100 000 going to black owned firms.

The full speech can be obtained here.

 

Speech by: Khume Ramulifho MPL

“A fair society creates work opportunities for everyone”

  • It is unfortunate that certain labour unions abuse workers’ rights by engaging in illegal strikes, vandalize public facilities or use violent methods to express their frustrations whenever their expectations or demands are not met.
  • There are many who have given up, others are considering giving up because they have been looking for job opportunities with no success
  • In order to create a fair society, people must get opportunity to work.
  • It is time to encourage innovation and creative thinking. The idea should be to broaden the pool of employed people.
  • Just imagine South Africa under the DA led government where we become a beacon of hope with a strong growing economy which creates countless job opportunities.

The full speech can be obtained here.

 

 

Media enquiries:

Refiloe Nt’sekhe

DA Shadow MEC for Social Development

060 558 8297

 

Fred Nel MPL

DA Gauteng Shadow MEC on Cooperative Governance, Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements

083 263 2427

 

Michele Clarke MPL

DA Gauteng Spokesperson on Community Safety

060 558 8299

 

Khume Ramulifho MPL

DA Gauteng Shadow MEC on Education

082 398 7375

[Image source]

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SPEECH BY MR FRED NEL, MPL ON WORKER’S DAY, DELIVERED IN THE GAUTENG PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE ON THURSDAY, 26 APRIL 2016

South Africa’s Economic Growth Rate Too Low to Create Jobs

Workers’ Day started as a commemoration of the struggles that workers had to overcome during their campaigns to improve working conditions. These struggles often ended in bloodshed and death of workers as they demanded better treatment. It is often also associated with the trade union movement that organised workers and fought for their rights since the late 1800’s.

Unions started out to improve the working conditions of workers especially those who worked in dirty and unsafe factories. It also started to bargain on behalf of workers for a fair wage and later started entering politics.

Although the initial purpose that brought about labour unions was noble, one could argue that unions have morphed into organisations reaching beyond its core function in society.

However, we cannot talk about Workers’ day in South Africa without looking at employment. It is difficult to celebrate this day when a quarter of our population do not have employment opportunities available to them. In fact, this number is growing more working South Africans are joining the ranks of the unemployed.

A clear indication of this is the drop in labour union membership in the country. We have seen in the last year that large unions like NUM and SAMWU reported major drops in membership figures. This cannot be attributed to increased competition among labour unions alone, but is mainly associated with job losses.

These losses are a direct consequence of a lack of economic growth in South Africa. According to Mineweb/ Bloomberg:

“Even without labour upheaval, the growth prospects in Africa’s most industrialised economy are looking dire. The National Treasury expects the economy to expand less than 1% this year, undermining efforts to cut a 25% unemployment rate, while the nation’s credit rating is on the brink of being downgraded to junk. The risk of political turmoil is also rising…

NUM has also been weakened by the firing of tens of thousands of its members in response to the commodity price slump. The mining industry employed 462,000 people in the final quarter of last year, 5.9% less than in the same period the year before, and down from a peak of more than 800,000 in the 1980s, according to the national statistics agency. Mining production fell for a sixth straight month in February, contracting an annual 8.7%, the agency’s data shows.”

In short, South Africa’s economic growth rate is too low to create jobs, in fact jobs are being cut as a result of this low growth.

However, this situation can be turned around. The DA launched its vision for South Africa in 2015 known as Vision 2029. As part of this plan the DA recently launched its five point job creation plan that aims to generate employment through the following focus areas.

  • Invest in integrated energy, transport and ICT infrastructure for job creation;
  • Give more people the education and skills they need to get a job;
  • Radically reform the labour regime to support job creation;
  • Provide direct incentives for job creation; and,
  • Create a nation of entrepreneurs by making it easier for South Africans to start and grow their own small businesses.

There is no freedom in poverty. There is no fairness in being kept poor. There are no opportunities for the poor.

We need to turn this around by establishing a society where individuals and business are free to access and participate in the economy instead of being restricted by unnecessary government regulation and red tape.

We must promote fair labour practices but not draconian labour laws. We need to provide proper education and training in order to provide equal access to employment opportunities for South Africans.

If we do this we can employ the 25% unemployed South Africans. Moreover, we could in future truly celebrate workers day rather than ignoring unemployment issues.

 

Media enquiries:

Fred Nel MPL

DA Gauteng MEC on Cooperative Governance, Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements

083 263 2427

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DA Debates Freedom Day

Note to editors: The following speeches were delivered in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature today by the DA Gauteng Caucus Leader, John Moodey MPL and DA Spokesperson on Economic Development, Ashor Sarupen MPL, during a debate on Freedom Day.

 

Speech by: John Moodey MPL

 “Millions jobless despite 22 years of freedom”

  • 22 years of the peoples’ choice in government and the best constitution in the world yet far too many of our people are still struggling.
  • Millions of South Africans are still in chains and denied their dignity and are robbed of a brighter future.
  • 22 years on yet far too many of our people will remain oppressed by unemployment and poverty – they are denied quality basic services, their future remains bleak because of corruption and self-enrichment by those in authority.

The full speech can be obtained here.

 

Speech by: Ashor Sarupen MPL

“The DA embodies the values of uTata Madiba”

  • On the 27th of April 1994, we as a nation cast off our shackles, our prejudices, forgave each other, and, for the first time, elected a government on the basis of one person, one vote.
  • Using stereotypes to discredit people is wrong.
  • Verwoerd’s dream was to box people in on identity politics. To say that if you are Indian, or black, or coloured you live only in certain areas, practice certain religions, sound only a certain way with a certain language and can only attain a certain level of education was his dream – and it was wrong. It was evil.

The full speech can be obtained here.

 

Media enquiries:

John Moodey MPL

DA Gauteng Caucus Leader

082 960 3743

 

Ashor Sarupen

DA Gauteng Spokesperson on Social Development

060 558 8303

[Image source]

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SPEECH BY MR JOHN MOODEY, MPL ON FREEDOM DAY, DELIVERED IN THE GAUTENG PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE ON THURSDAY, 26 APRIL 2016

Millions jobless despite 22 years of freedom

Honourable Speaker

It was a Sunday afternoon and about one kilometre from our home in Western Township. We were confronted by a group of about 10 very young men who beat my dad to a pulp. It took about five months to recover from the assault – six weeks thereof as he was hospitalised. When my mom reported the incident to the police their response was “wat het die hotnot daar gesoek!”

Yes we were reduced to the status of sub-human under an oppressive regime that we had no hand in choosing.

Voltaire once said and I quote: “Man is born free yet, everywhere he is in chains.” We cannot deny our past a very painful past, most of us in this house spent the better part of our lives living in chains.

It is the experiences such as the one I mentioned, that gave us the strength to persevere, fight and to overcome.

The dream became a reality 22 years ago.

After decades of struggle and a few years of negotiations we were free to choose the government of our choice – Our Constitution the supreme law of our country finally recognised all of us black, white, coloured or Indian as equals before the law.

22 years of the peoples’ choice in government and the best constitution in the world yet far too many of our people are still struggling.

Millions of South Africans are still in chains and denied there dignity and are robbed of a brighter future.

22 years on yet far too many of our people will remain oppressed by unemployment and poverty – they are denied quality basic services, their future remains bleak because of corruption and self-enrichment by those in authority.

Friends and colleagues, we in this house need to constantly remind ourselves why we are here, who put us here and what our mandate is.

What do our people expect from us? Are we really representing the interests of all the residents in Gauteng? Are we candidly doing everything possible to improve the plight of our people and to address their challenges?

Are we truly working on building a better South Africa with a brighter future and are we satisfied with what we as individuals have achieved.

Honourable members, let us find the true meaning of freedom, may it be economically, just and fair with the values enshrined in our Constitution to continue to seek opportunities to lift South Africans out of poverty.

 

Media enquiries:

John Moodey MPL

DA Gauteng Caucus Leader

082 960 3743

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International Women’s Day Shows Joburg Undermining Women’s Rights

Helen Joseph Women’s Hostel

The DA today challenges Johannesburg Mayor Parks Tau to address the desperate needs of thousands of women and children in Johannesburg, who live in utter squalor and poverty on his watch.

In honour of International Women’s Day, I paid a visit to the Helen Joseph Women’s Hostel in Alexandra today, and witnessed how more than 4000 women live without running water or flushing toilets, while rivers of raw sewage flow through the buildings.

The situation at Helen Joseph Hostel is one of many across the City of Johannesburg, where people are forced to live in inhumane and undignified conditions, while Mayor Tau and the ANC claim to run a world class city.

Human Rights

How is it that more than two decades into democracy the city cannot care for women, the poor and the most vulnerable?

It is not fair or reasonable to expect people to live in such conditions, as we have found in Alex today, while the mayor travels across the world and lives a life of luxury.

Every year South Africans celebrate their human rights during the month of March, while thousands upon thousands of Johannesburg’s poor and most vulnerable wait in vain for the city to provide for their most basic of needs.

Mayor Tau and the ANC do not care for the poorest of the poor, and only pay lip service to delivery.

Decent Living Conditions

The DA in Midvaal and other municipalities where we govern, have tried and tested plans and policies to alleviate the plight of the poor.

The DA in government provides the most comprehensive basket of free basic services, and we want to do the same in Johannesburg.

Year after year DA-governed municipalities report the lowest unemployment figures, the highest levels of service delivery and the most pro-poor policies.

Johannesburg’s residents deserve the same government.

The DA’s vision for Johannesburg is that of caring city, which provides a host of opportunities for people to build a better life.

A city where the poor have a decent safety net, where people are provided with decent living conditions, and enjoy dignified treatment as enshrined in the Bill of Rights – can be a reality under the DA.

 

Media enquiries:

Willie Venter

Director: Communications and research

060 963 8260

[Image source]

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Gauteng Social Development Department Fails To Tackle Substance Abuse

Out-patient Centres

Rehabilitating substance users in Gauteng has been dealt a massive blow by the Department of Social Development as the number of people accessing out-patient centres across the province fell far short of the department’s target for the third quarter.

The Department had aimed to assist 4331 people through out-patient centres, but only managed 2704.

Others targets not achieved in this quarter include:

  • Only 29 out of 45 substance abuse services centres complied with regulations to be registered; and
  • 1798 patients out of a planned target of 9056 are participating in after care programmes.

Unemployment, Poverty and Crime

Year on year, this department has failed to deliver on its mandate, let alone address the scourge of drugs and its impact on families and society.

Drugs abuse is a blunt escape mechanism for many residents of Gauteng facing the challenges of unemployment, poverty and crime.

Social Development MEC, Nandi Mayathula-Khoza, must take swift action against officials in her department who are failing to ensure that residents of Gauteng have access to treatment and an improved quality of life.

The DA will in the next few weeks conduct oversight visits to treatment facilities, including NPOs facing financial woes – to highlight the shortcomings of the department and take up the plight with the MEC.

 

Media Enquiries:

Refiloe Nt’sekhe MPL

DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Social Development

060 558 8297

[Image source]

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The DA has the vision to beat unemployment in Johannesburg

Randburg Labour Office

Today the DA visited the Randburg Labour Office in Johannesburg, to better understand the desperate plight of unemployed South Africans.

Job creation will be our first priority from day one in Johannesburg, when a DA government takes over governance in the city.

At the labour office, we reviewed the quality of service delivered by officials and spoke with numerous unemployed South Africans who have to queue each day to register their plight.

Managers briefed us on the number of job seekers who visit the centre every month, and the success rate of job seekers finding jobs. These numbers horrified and disturbed me, as so many more of our fellow South Africans join the ranks of the unemployed daily. I was deeply moved by the desperate poverty so many of our people find themselves in.

Expanded Public Works Programme

For this campaign to win Johannesburg, we have made it our mission to meet job-seekers every day, to take their plight on board and to make it our every effort to get into government and start a tidal wave of change that will create jobs and opportunities for millions of people.

In this campaign we want to hear first-hand accounts of how long people have been unemployed, how many times they have visited labour centres, and how many (if any) job opportunities and interviews they may have had.

And we are going to tell each and every one of these mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, of our plans to kick-start Johannesburg’s economy, and to create jobs for the thousands of unemployed people.

We are going to explain how the DA will place all available Expanded Public Works Programme, Community Works Programme, City of Johannesburg internships, and other government jobs on a central database, which will be accessible via the Internet and at job centres such as this one in Randburg.

Transforming City of Johannesburg

A DA-governed Johannesburg will invite the private sector to advertise their job vacancies on this same database so as to expand the pool of available jobs.

People will hear from me and the DA over the coming days and months how the City of Johannesburg led by the DA will offer a conditional subsidy to small businesses which have limited financial means, in order to recruit new workers, provided new  upskilled on the job.

For too long the City of Johannesburg has only sought to boost the local economy and to create jobs for insiders and connected cronies – yet the DA is ready to transform the city into South Africa’s and Africa’s powerhouse through fair job creation and a commitment to economic opportunities for all.

 

Media enquiries:

Willie Venter

Director: Communications and research

060 963 8260

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DA Debates 2014/15 Economic Development Annual Report

Speech by: Janet Semple MPL

“Economic planning must reflect the dynamics of Gauteng”

  • The biggest contribution the Department of Economic Development could make to job creation is to create an enabling environment in which small businesses and entrepreneurs can flourish.The ANC in this province must make up its mind: does it support the NDP or does it support the New Growth Path? It cannot do both and expect the economy to thrive.
  • Gauteng, along with the rest of South Africa governed by the ANC, continues to record low levels of entrepreneurship and high levels of failure among start-ups, despitethe creations generous funding of multiple government agencies tasked with financing SMMEs.
  • To quote from the DA’s policy on Tackling South Africa’s Economic Crisis: small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (otherwise known as SMMEs) are the primary absorbers of labour in our economy.

The full speech can be obtained here.

 

Speech by: Ina Cilliers MPL

“Economic experiments leading Gauteng down a dangerous road”

  • Government owned enterprise hubs and industrial parks are just not taking off. The department spends money over and over to revitalize and recapitalize, but there is no critical examination of why they fail?
  • Make it easy for SME and new entrants to become part of the formal economy by cutting red tape in Gauteng.
  • Leave the free market alone- we have good monetary policy tools to target inflation, curb volatility and stabilize the market.
  • It is not the free market that agreed to an unfunded wage increase of R 61bn for the public service that could wipe out our contingency reserve in the next 3 years- that’s our emergency money, supposed to be kept safe in case of any new economic shocks.

The full speech can be obtained here.

 

Speech by: Ashor Sarupen MPL

“Annual report highlights how department papers over the cracks of poverty”

  • For our economy to grow, we need reliable water infrastructure and reliable electricity infrastructure. It is no surprise that problems cause by the ANC’s failure to invest in this critical economic infrastructure over the past 21 years is a key reason why we fail to attract investment and create jobs.
  • Gauteng still does not have a dedicated program or office of Red Tape Reduction, unlike a certain other province, which has seen a decline in real unemployment by rolling out the red carpet for the SMME sector.
  • Until the fundamentals are addressed, the department is just papering over the cracks of a faltering economy, and the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment will persist.

The full speech can be obtained here.

 

Media enquiries:

Janet Semple MPL

DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Economic Development

082 462 8239

 

Ina Cilliers MPL

DA Gauteng Spokesperson on Economic Development

060 556 4344

 

Ashor Sarupen MPL

DA Gauteng Spokesperson on Economic Development

060 558 8303

[Image source]