The Democratic Alliance in Limpopo calls upon Premier Phophi Ramathuba and her provincial administration to remove the structural barriers to economic growth and job creation in Limpopo or face the province becoming a welfare state.
Limpopo lost a staggering 55 000 jobs between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025 – that’s close to 20% of the jobs lost nationally. This is according to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey report for the first quarter of 2025 released by Stats SA.
Our expanded unemployment rate in Limpopo — at an astounding 48.6% — is the second highest in the country. This includes those citizens of Limpopo who have lost all hope of finding work. Nearly one in every two working-age people in Limpopo is now unemployed or discouraged.
Even more worrying is that only 36.5% of Limpopo’s working-age population are employed. That’s well below the national average and shows that our provincial economy, under the control of the ANC, simply isn’t absorbing people into work.
According to the labour force participation rate which sits at just 54.8%, nearly half of our people have been pushed out of the job market entirely.
These numbers speak to the lived reality (a crisis) for far too many Limpopo residents — particularly young people — who are being left behind in an economy that is failing them. It is not just a statistical crisis. It is a human one.
The impact here in Limpopo of:
- Bad municipal governance, the concomitant collapse of municipal infrastructure and service delivery, and the lack of political will by the ANC-led provincial government to intervene;
- The inability of the provincial administration to successfully roll out infrastructure projects and maintain existing infrastructure; and
- The failure of LEDET and LEDA to drive economic growth and its diversification, and to back unfeasible projects such as the MMSEZ, has clearly increased our provincial misery.
Commercial agriculture has remained a mainstay for the province, despite little support from the provincial government. Mining, on the other hand, showed a significant decline.
As the Democratic Alliance, we joined the GNU to fight for economic growth and job creation – and for the bold reforms needed to reverse the growing catastrophe we all face.
A job is more than a source of income. It provides hope for the future, security, and above all, dignity.
We need to unlock the barriers to investment and growth – such as job, labour, and economic regulations that protect narrow interests at the expense of all South Africans, and provide better and more responsible governance here in Limpopo.