Central SA
NC premier buys ambulances, not cars for MECs─── PULANE CHOANE 14:03 Wed, 05 Jun 2019
The recently appointed premier of the Northern Cape, Zamani Saul, has hit the ground running with regards to delivering on his pre-election campaign promises.
Prior to his appointment and following his appointment, Saul stated that in his tenure, his provincial Members of Executive Committee (MEC) would not be receiving luxury state vehicles and he would buy ambulances for various health facilities across the province with that money. Yesterday, Saul delivered on this promise as he announced that the provincial government now has 27 new ambulances to add to its fleet.
Saul took to his Twitter page yesterday to announce that these 27 new ambulances are the first in a batch of 63 ambulances. Standing firm to his decision to improve service delivery in the province at all costs, Saul said he and his provincial cabinet would remain resolute in their decision to not buy new vehicles. He also added that he, yesterday afternoon, had a meeting with the youth in the Galeshewe township, which is in Kimberley, to hear their concerns. The youth makes up a large part of the unemployment statistics in the country. Speaking on the scourge of joblessness among the young, Saul says this problem was a ticking time bomb and he would try to find a resolution to the issue.
Earlier this year, Statistics South Africa released the Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the fourth quarter of 2018, which showed that the number of unemployed people in the province dropped by 10,2% during this period. As per these figures provided, unemployment in the province stands at 25% of the population as 107 000 members of the population are unemployed, while 322 000 people in the province were employed in the stated period. Though high, this 25% unemployment rate is a 2% reduction from the third quarter of 2018, as the rate stood at 27% during that period.
Meanwhile, the labour force participation rate is currently at 53.8%, down from 55.6% and finally, in terms of the expanded definition of unemployment, the unemployment rate in the Province is 38.6%.
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