Helen Zille. Picture: THE TIMES
Helen Zille. Picture: THE TIMES

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THE African National Congress (ANC) in the Western Cape has torn into premier Helen Zille’s state of the province address, saying that it was filled with "untruths".

Members of the provincial legislature on Tuesday debated Ms Zille’s address, which she delivered on Friday.

Ms Zille’s speech focused, for the most part, on the state of the economy and job creation. She said more than 200,000 "real jobs" were created in the province since the Democratic Alliance (DA) came into power in 2009. Statistics SA data showed that the unemployment rate in the province had decreased from 24.8% in 2012 to 20.6% in 2015, she said.

But the ANC said on Tuesday Ms Zille was misleading the public. "The premier boasts about how the unemployment rate of the Western Cape was down to 20.6% in September 2015 from 24.8% in 2012.

"However, what the premier selectively fails to mention is that in 2009, she inherited a province with an unemployment rate of 19.9%, which was the lowest in the country," ANC Western Cape leader Khaya Magaxa said during the debate.

"This therefore means that the unemployment rate went up under the premiership of Helen Zille," he said.

Mr Magaxa claimed that 21,000 young people became employed between 2009 and 2014. "Perhaps the premier should dedicate her last three years of premiership to those 21,000 young people who have lost their jobs under her watch," he said.

He also said job creation in the Western Cape continued to benefit white people. "The latest employment equity report shows that 63.8% of top management positions in the Western Cape are occupied by white males, while only 2% are occupied by African males. While white South Africans made up 16% of Western Cape residents of working age in 2014, they benefited from 57% of total job growth in the province from 2009 to 2014. Africans made (up) 32% of the working population of the province but ... got (just) 16% of jobs. This is but one example of a government hell-bent on entrenching a racialised economy."

Mr Magaxa said racism remained rife in the Western Cape, yet Ms Zille did not tackle the issue in her state of the province address. "The premier said that she dedicates the state of the province address and the remaining three years of her premiership to the youth. She said that Cape Town has become a magnet for young people. I wonder which young people she is referring to because young black professionals are actually leaving the City of Cape Town due to racism," said Mr Magaxa.

"The very same young people she dedicates her state of the DA to, have actually become unemployed under her watch. Youth jobs under the DA are at their lowest they have ever been in the last 10 years."

But DA members dismissed the ANC’s claims.

Beverley Schäfer, DA’s Western Cape spokeswoman on economic opportunities, said in her debate speech that the Western Cape was able to provide more jobs than the rest of the country "through a focused economic strategy, which aims to stimulate specific sectors of the economy".

"In (the) face of the national job crisis, I am happy to say that the Western Cape is still able to provide more jobs than the rest of the country," Ms Schäfer said.

She said, according to Stats SA, between 2008 and 2015 more than 200, 000 new jobs were created in the province. "In the same period, while we in the Western Cape created these new jobs, the unemployment in SA has increased by almost 1.2-million people," she said.

Ms Schäfer said the Western Cape recognised that youth unemployment required focused intervention and has developed programmes that dealt directly with skills development, entrepreneurship and innovation.

"CapaCiTi, our special purpose vehicle, is a case in point, acting as the bridge between training and employment, guaranteeing that individuals who qualify from a CapaCiTi programmes are ensured employment in the field that they studied," she said.

Ms Zille is scheduled to respond to the debate on Friday.