Zille pledges 200 000 new jobs in Johannesburg

Democratic AllianceJohannesburg mayoral candidateHelen Zillehas launched her “Get Joburg Working” mayoral campaign, pledging to create 200 000 new jobs in Johannesburg. Zille unveiled five campaign pledges during the launch, withwater supplyand job creation forming the centrepiece of her platform. Her third pledge focuses on attracting at least 200 000 new jobs to the city.

She said recent labour market trends show Johannesburg losing jobs while Cape Town has recorded employment gains. In the past three months, Johannesburg lost 49 000 jobs while the DA-run City of Cape Town gained 69 000 jobs. “We will attract these 200 000 new jobs by bringing Joburg’s business centre back to life and restoring confidence in our city, because when there is confidence business will invest and create jobs.

That is just the rules of economics,” she said. Zille said more than 400 000 jobs had been created in Cape Town and that the DA intended to replicate similar results in Johannesburg. Her first pledge focuses on stabilising basic services such as water and electricity.

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“Our first pledge is, what else could it be, to provide reliable clean water and a steady electricity supply. The people of Joburg pay for these services and often don’t get them,” she said. “Money collected for water must fix water, money collected for electricity must fix electricity, and not fund the ANC’s friends and family, and blue lights and Johnny Walker blue.

The only blue thing that is in Johannesburg is the DA,” said Zille. Her second campaign pledge centres on repairing the city’s roads and transport infrastructure. “We will fix the road that keeps Joburg moving and we won’t call a ribbon cutting every time we fix a pothole because they’ll be fixed every single day. And within the end of our term we will be able to fill potholes within 72 hours of reporting them,” she said.

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