My letter has reference to Lorenzo A Davids’s column, #AnotherVoice, “We have had enough of lingering black poverty,” (Cape Argus, January 29).
What has the ANC led government achieved after 30 years of democracy?
The DA-led Western Cape province, has achieved much to “alleviate lingering black poverty” in the Cape.
A brief preamble of the strategy: “One of the biggest and most intractable problems faced by cities is growing intra-urban inequality. By most metrics, South African cities are among the most unequal in the world.”
The City’s Integrated Development Planning strategy for the next five years is based on five interrelated pillars, namely, the opportunity city, the safe city, the caring city, the inclusive city and the well -run city.
The ANC has failed dismally in its original strategies, namely, the Reconstruction and Development Programme, Growth Employment and Redistribution, the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa, the National Development Plan and the Social Assistance System.
The City has a diversified economy, and the biggest sectors are finance, insurance, property and business services. With regard to the wholesale and retail trade, catering and accommodation, much of it is tourism driven.
The Western Cape, under the DA, has, according to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey released by Statistics South Africa, created 368 000 jobs in the Western Cape, between the second quarter of 2022 and the second quarter of 2023. That is a 15.7% increase in employed people year-on-year, well ahead of all other provinces, with Gauteng creating 201 000 jobs over the same period. Between quarter one and quarter two of this year, 54 000 jobs were created in the Western Cape.
Urban inequality in South Africa was deepened and entrenched by strict racial segregation during the apartheid era. Apartheid laws severely constrained the options available to black urban residents, in terms of where they could live, access to education and health-care and economic opportunities.
The DA-led Western Cape government has an open opportunity policy, entrenched in fairness, freedom and diversity.
Hence, South Africans are flocking to the Western Cape province in search of a better quality of life.
The DA has a plan to alleviate black poverty and rescue South Africa.
* DA councillor Mark RH Kleinschmidt, Lansdowne.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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