Winde in SOPA: Western Cape economy is continuing to grow
Winde says the province has made good progress in boosting the economy, including creating employment and ensuring safety and security for residents.
Western Cape Premier Alan Winde says the province has made good progress in boosting the economy, including creating employment and ensuring safety and security for residents.
Winde made the remarks while delivering the State of the Province Address (Sopa) at the Huguenot Community Hall in Paarl on Monday.
CRIME
Winde said the province will continue to fight for policing authority and more management of the police.
“Five years ago, there were 19 000 police officers in this province. Our population is growing. Today there are 17 500 police officers in this province.
You know that the deployment of these police officers isn’t deployed to where the crimes are. In Nyanga, in Philippi, they have 800 citizens to one police officer, but in other areas of this province, they’ve got 400 and 500 citizens to police officers.
That’s why federal police powers make a difference because then provinces will be competing with each other to make sure that it becomes safer,” he said.
ALSO READ: A cattle ship causes foul smell in Cape Town
JOB CREATION
Winde said the Western Cape was a leading province in job creation.
“We were able to add another chapter to this success story when even more employment opportunities were created between quarter three of 2022 and quarter three of 2023.
Of the 169 000 jobs created in the country in the fourth quarter of the 2022/23 financial year, 167 000 of them were created here in the Western Cape. Reflecting on jobs in this term of office, the Western Cape economy created almost two thirds (64.9%) of all jobs in South Africa,” he said.
TOURISM
Winde said the Cape Town International Airport has recorded more than 30 000 arrivals, flying directly into Cape Town.
“The airport’s seat capacity for this summer season increased by 25% year on year to 1 million passengers and in the last year saw a 48% increase. This is as a result of our Cape Town Air Access plan developed in 2015 which continues to grow and reap rewards for our province, he said.