Limpopo Premier Stan Mathabatha
Limpopo Premier Stan Mathabatha got pushback when he touted his province’s easing unemployment rate during a town hall debate ahead of this year’s general elections, with some in the audience pointing out that many residents had been forced to move to other provinces in search of jobs.
Responding to a question about the high unemployment in the country under the ANC government during the Mail & Guardian and University of Limpopo forum, Mathabatha pointed out that joblessness in his own province had eased in the past year to around 30% of the labour force.
But, as he was making this argument, some in the audience shouted that unemployment in Limpopo was actually 49%, probably a reference to the expanded definition of unemployment which includes people who have given up looking for jobs. Some economists argue that this definition provides a more accurate reflection of the job situation in the country.
During Tuesday’s debate, held at the University of Limpopo’s Polokwane campus, one of the guests, Sello Letswalo, took Mathabatha to task over his promise of 48 000 new jobs during his 2022 state of the province address, saying unemployment remained too high.
In response, Mathabatha pointed out that the jobless rate had eased over the last few quarters in his province, saying “unemployment is increasing at a decreasing rate”. But he conceded that it was still too high and was of concern to his administration.
“It’s not like we are saying we are happy about it; it’s a problem for us also. To give you an example, in the 2023 financial year, we lost 40 000 jobs [according to] Statistics South Africa but, in the same year, we created 182 000 jobs.”
Stats SA data says the official unemployment rate in Limpopo eased to 30.3% in the fourth quarter of 2023 from 30.8% in the third. It was down from 31.8% a year ago.
The province was worse off than the Western Cape (20.3%), Northern Cape (26.9%) and KwaZulu-Natal (29.5%), but fared better than Gauteng (33.8%), Mpumalanga (34.9%), the Free State (37%) North West (39%) and Eastern Cape (41.9%)
Unemployment has fuelled poverty in South Africa. According to World Bank data, about 55.5%, or 30.3 million people, live in poverty, based on the national upper poverty line of R992, while 13.8 million, or 25%, are experiencing food poverty.
Mathabatha said the high national unemployment rate — currently at 32.1% — could not be blamed solely on the ANC government’s 30 year rule, arguing that the jobs crunch dated back to the 1980s.
He added that technological advancements had done away with some jobs.
“Technology is also a disadvantage to us but we can’t, as people who are development oriented, say we must stop being economically comparative in terms of bringing machines into play,” the premier said.
“You have to come up with ways and means of developing people, developing skills in universities that will be relevant to universities, such as this one and that will be relevant to the needs of this economy.”
One of the panellists and president of the student representative council, Lekau Mamabolo, said Mathabatha could not blame technology for the lack of jobs, arguing that some of the most advanced nations in the world were still creating jobs for their people.
“Recently the president of the United States, on his campaign trail, said unemployment was at its all-time low since Covid even though they have all these machines. When you go to their McDonald’s, you don’t see people [but machines but], despite the technological advancements in those counties, they are still able to create jobs,” Mamabolo said.
He added that Mathabatha should not scare people by suggesting machines were going to take away their jobs and the government should rather focus on creating employment.
Another panellist, Professor Sam Koma, said South Africa was among the countries with the highest levels of unemployment. He said the governing party needed to accept and acknowledge that the Growth, Employment and Redistribution policy it had introduced in 1996 had fuelled job losses.
“The economy was growing at acceptable levels but also people in different economic sectors lost jobs in massive numbers due in part to the privatisation of state-owned enterprises,” Koma said.