Gauteng Department of Economic Development spends over R5 million on war room, yet Zero employment opportunities created

Issued by Makashule Gana MPL – DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Economic Development
18 May 2022 in Press Statements

The 2.6 million unemployed residents of Gauteng are not reaping any benefit from the Economic Development war room that was established under Premier David Makhura, yet a total of R5 052 195,96 has been spent.

This is extremely disheartening as it means that our unemployed residents especially the youth will continue to struggle to put food on the table and will now have to wait even longer before they can become active participants in the economy in the province.

Since its inception last year, R1 772 720,46 has been spent to supply and equip the physical facilities the war room utilises and a further R3 279 475,50 has been spent on compensating the 17 technical advisory panel members for the period covering October 2021 to February 2022.

In response to my questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, the MEC for Economic Development, Parks Tau indicated that since the inception of the war room in July last year a roundtable discussion with the various sectors involved only took place between February and April this year. Furthermore, no job creation has taken place and the MEC is unable to tell us exactly how many jobs will be created.

The DA will be engaging with MEC Tau regularly to monitor the progress made in stimulating the economy and ensuring that more job opportunities are created for our residents on an ongoing basis.

The time for talking is over and it is high time that the Department of Economic Development starts delivering on its mandate of ensuring that a conducive environment is created for the private sector to create more job opportunities that will lead to long term employment for the unemployed residents of the province. Our residents cannot wait till 2024 for more jobs to be created, they need jobs now.

The war room is proving to be toothless as Gauteng is seeing an increase in the number of unemployed people and those who have given up on ever finding a job in the Gauteng economy. The so-called war room is ineffective as an intervention. The priority for the province must be to attract investors who will create jobs for the people.