ANC Statements

The African National Congress is pleased to acknowledge the recent drop in unemployment rates as reported by Statistics South Africa. These figures provide a reliable basis for evaluating the effectiveness and influence of the ANC’s economic policies thus far. We will use this metric to inform our decision-making as we approach our manifesto review process.

Over the past quarter we have seen an increase of 154,000 employees, marking the seventh consecutive quarterly increase since Quarter 4, 2021, bringing the total number of employed persons to 16.3 million. This rise can be attributed to growth rates of 8.6% in construction, 7.5% in mining, and 2.8% in trade.

Nevertheless, we are concerned about the decline in the manufacturing sector which experienced a 5.8% decrease due to electricity load-shedding. The ANC remains steadfast in prioritizing energy security in the country.

We commend the positive contributions made by provinces led by the ANC such as Limpopo (+80,000), KZN (+48,000), Eastern Cape (+23,000), Mpumalanga (+17,000), Gauteng (+4000), and North West (+4000), which added a cumulative 176,000 jobs in the last quarter.

We are pleased to see that the unemployment rate for graduates decreased by 1.1%, moving from 10.6% to 9.6%. However we remain concerned about the significant gender disparity in employment with 2 million fewer women employed in South Africa than men. This disparity affects all population groups with the Black African unemployment rate for women being 39.8%, 4.1% higher than the national

unemployment rate for women (35.7%).

We are heartened to see a decrease in the Not in Employment, Education, or Training (NEET) rate which dropped by 1.5% from 35.7% in quarter 2, 2022, to 34.2% in quarter 2, 2023. However, much work still needs to be done as 3.5 million young people require employment, education, or training. It is worth noting that 6.7 million out of the total 10.2 million young people aged 15 to 24 years are employed in education or training (EET), indicating that efforts to improve educational opportunities have a positive impact.

We aim to continue building an economy in which all our people have a meaningful stake and from which can all benefit. To this end we will ensure that in line with our 55th National Conference resolution we build an economy that:

• Creates decent, productive employment to fight poverty, inequality, and exclusion.
• Ensures increased ownership and participation by Black people in the economy through Black Economic Empowerment.
• Promotes a complementary relationship between social forms of ownership, such as co-operatives and public ownership, and the private sector, geared towards attaining our economic transformation objectives.
• Develops a labour-intensive integrated industrial base, overcomes balance of payments problems, and helps prevent boom-bust cycles.
• Eliminates the spatial disparities within our country and integrates our communities into mainstream economic activity.
• Provides critical inputs required to initiate a process of integrated regional industrial development in the African Continent and positions our economy to play its part in building solid south-south economic relations.

• Progressively moves towards a low-carbon development path, is environmentally sustainable, and contributes towards mitigating the effects of climate change.

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ISSUED BY THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS

Enquiries:

Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri
ANC NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON
076 891 5420

JP Louw
ACTING NATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
066 056 0911