The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey revealed that the joblessness stranglehold on the Eastern Cape has tightened, with the province recording the worst year-on-year increase in unemployment in South Africa.
Unemployment in the Eastern Cape increased by 5.3 percentage points compared to the same period last year, the largest increase recorded in any province. Official unemployment now stands at 44.6%, the highest in South Africa, while the expanded rate has climbed to 54.4%.
The province also has the lowest absorption rate in the country, at just 28.7%, meaning that working-age residents in the Eastern Cape are less likely to be employed than people living anywhere else in South Africa.
For families across the province, this crisis has reached catastrophic levels. It means empty cupboards, unpaid bills, young people trapped at home without opportunity, and communities where work has become the exception rather than the norm.
In non-metro areas, the expanded unemployment rate has now reached 63.1%, showing the devastating scale of rural economic exclusion.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) warned on Workers’ Day that the Eastern Cape needs a credible and comprehensive jobs and poverty intervention strategy. In a memorandum handed over to Premier Oscar Mabuyane, the DA demanded a practical provincial plan to address poor basic service delivery, the collapse of local government, and the growing pressure on the automotive sector, which remains one of the province’s most important economic anchors.
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Businesses cannot expand where municipalities cannot provide reliable water, electricity, roads, and basic services. Investors will not commit where infrastructure is failing, logistics are weak, and suppliers are not paid on time. Small businesses cannot survive in towns where local government has become a barrier to economic activity.
The Eastern Cape does not lack people who want to work. It lacks a government capable of building an economy that can absorb them into work.
The contrast with the Western Cape is clear. The DA-run Western Cape recorded the lowest unemployment rate in the country, at 19.6%, while its absorption rate stands at 55.7%.
Governance matters. Where government functions, more people are drawn into work. Where municipalities collapse, infrastructure fails, and investors lose confidence, unemployment deepens.
The DA has also requested that the unemployment crisis be debated as a Matter of Public Importance in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature. We are still waiting for formal confirmation from the Speaker’s Office on when this matter will be debated.
This debate must take place. Premier Mabuyane and his executive must account for the worsening unemployment crisis and present a credible jobs turnaround strategy that deals directly with failing municipalities, collapsing infrastructure, support for small businesses, and the urgent risks facing the automotive sector.
The people of the Eastern Cape deserve leadership that understands the scale of this crisis and acts with the urgency it demands. A province with this much potential should not have the highest unemployment rate, the lowest absorption rate, and the fastest deterioration in unemployment pressure in South Africa.
The DA will continue to fight for accountable government, functioning municipalities, and an economy that gives the people of the Eastern Cape a fair chance to work, provide for their families, and live with dignity.