Cape Town has the lowest unemployment rate of all metros

STATEMENT BY THE CITY’S MAYORAL COMMITTEE MEMBER FOR ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES AND ASSET MANAGEMENT, ALDERMAN JAMES VOS

While I am encouraged that Cape Town has the lowest broad unemployment rate of all metros in South Africa, at 28,9% in Quarter 2 of 2020 according to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, the impact of the national lockdown measures has been devastating for far too many residents.

Our tourism and related industries have been among some of the hardest hit. That is why I am very excited to welcome back the first international flights tomorrow, Thursday 1 October, at our award-winning Cape Town International Airport.

Together with industry stakeholders, we are working harder than ever to implement the strategies and initiatives we have developed to get our economy back on its feet.

The Enterprise and Investment  team is currently implementing the following steps as part of the Economic Action Plan:

• Enhancing business retention efforts, including business aftercare and support to SMMEs, ensuring they can expand by taking advantage of the opportunities every crisis presents.
• Lowering the costs of doing business and transacting with the City, making it easier for expansion and investment to resume again. A key part of this is re-looking at the Investment Incentive Policy to see how it could be adapted to further stimulate investment during the recovery phase.
• Equipping businesses for new ways of working. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated preventative measures have fundamentally changed the way the City will work through its strategic business partners and the Cape IT Initiative.

By implementing initiatives that are proven to work, we can and will emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, stronger than before.