By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
African National Congress (ANC) President Cyril Ramaphosa is campaigning in the Western Cape this week as the party want to win the province.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is still likely to remain the biggest party in the provincial vote, with the ANC at just 17% in second place.
Ramaphosa addressed the first time voters in Langa, Cape Town, on Thursday night.
In its manifesto, the ANC has identified six things and top of the list is unemployment and creating jobs.
The party had realised jobs are the critical issue affecting people in the country, he said.
“Let me be clear. Most people who are not working are young. At the same time there are many people 35 (years) and above who are also not working. We are focusing on both groups and not solely on young people.”
He said when the ANC came into power in 1994, there were only 8-million people working in the formal economy.
That number was now 16.7-million people, which meant government had created 8.7-million jobs.
Ramaphosa said creating one full time job for a long time costs a lot of money and hence government’s reliance on job creation was largely on the private sector.The private sector controls 70% of the economy, he said, and therefore most jobs will be created by the sector while the public sector will play a role in enabling this.
“We create the environment for them to create jobs. We are the ones who mobilise the world, the countries to invest in our economy. We do responsibility.”
He promised that to meet young people’s aspirations, the ANC government, if re-elected, will create 5-million jobs in the next five years. He acknowledged this will be a tall order as South Africa was only creating about 600,000 to 700,000 jobs while economic growth was around 5%.
Ramaphosa also spoke about job schemes for youth government has launched over the past few years, including the R21bn which he said has been set aside to train young people.