The AmaXhosa King, Ahlangene Sigcau, says the Eastern Cape is one of the most under-developed provinces with the highest number of unemployed youths.
Sigcau believes development should come through extensive consultative processes.
“We are sitting with above 37 percent of unemployment in the country so if anything is coming with that kind of development we cannot just close the doors and listen to what are they have to say…We have heard that there are NGOs that are opposing it, they must come and tell us why they are opposing it.”
Eastern Cape has the highest unemployment rate in SA
The stagnant economic outlook in the Eastern Cape continues to have dire effects on residents. While the COVID-19 pandemic is also an added strain on the province’s growth trajectory.
Finance MEC Mlungisi Mvoko presented a gloomy picture during his mid-term budget in the legislature in Bhisho.
However, Mvoko indicated the Departments of Education and Health have received budget increases.
The budgets for the Eastern Cape Education and Health Departments have been adjusted to over R37 billion and R27 billion respectively. That is a budget increase of R2.2 billion for education and R1.34 billion for health.
The Education Department now has R84 million for education assistants and general school assistants. Mvoko said R45 million from the Health Department budget would be allocated to health staff and nurses providing assistance in the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccinations. He also expressed concern about the huge amounts the department is spending to settle medical-legal claims.
“In the 2021/22 Adjustment Budget, the total adjustment shows an additional amount of R3.793 billion allocated to the 2021/22 main budget, taking our provincial adjusted appropriation to R86.401 billion. As indicated, this increase is due to additional allocations of R1.991 billion to implement the 2021/22 Wage Agreement of the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council and R898.091 million for the Presidential Youth Employment initiative. Over R113 million was added to our conditional grants, increasing it from R13.296 billion to the adjusted amount of R13.409 billion.”
The unemployment rate in the province stands at 47% for the 3rd quarter of 2021 compared to 45.8% for the same period last year. Joblessness in Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela Bay stands at 40%. The opposition parties have criticised the provincial government for failing to come up with a sustainable economic recovery plan as, Mlamli Makhetha of the EFF, and Retief Odendaal of the DA elaborate.
