Note to Broadcasters: Please find attached the English soundbite by Freddy Sonakile.
The Democratic Alliance notes Premier Mokgosi’s attempt to present recent Labour Force statistics and renewed project announcements as proof that the North West provincial government is turning the corner. While any real job creation is welcome, the people of this province deserve substance, not selective statistics, recycled promises, and governance by press release.
A year-on-year decline in the official unemployment rate does not, in itself, demonstrate a sustainable economic recovery. The lived reality across North West remains one of collapsing municipal services, deteriorating roads, unreliable water supply, failing infrastructure, and shrinking local economies.
Even the Premier’s own acknowledgement that the expanded unemployment rate declined by only 1.9 percentage points confirms that the structural unemployment crisis remains largely unchanged. Discouraged work-seekers, especially young people, continue to sit outside the economy with little hope of opportunity.
We welcome the memorandum of understanding with the National Department of Public Works and Infrastructure since the Provincial Department has failed to address the airport’s operational challenges and unlock its economic potential.
The provincial Department of Public Works has long been responsible for addressing the airport’s operational challenges and unlocking its economic potential. The need for national intervention now exposes the province’s sustained failure to execute its own mandate. If the provincial government had exercised competent oversight, maintained infrastructure, and implemented credible turnaround plans earlier, such external rescue measures would not be necessary today.
Unfortunately, this pattern is not unique. Across the province, we see the same governance failures repeat:
- Municipalities are unable to maintain basic infrastructure or provide reliable services.
- Chronic under-spending on infrastructure maintenance, while emergency repairs multiply.
- Procurement delays and governance failures that suffocate small contractors and local businesses.
- Public entities that exist on paper but fail to deliver measurable economic outcomes.
It is therefore misleading for the provincial government to celebrate job figures without confronting the fundamental barriers that prevent investment and private-sector growth. Sustainable employment does not come from short-term public programs, statistical fluctuations in agriculture, or temporary construction cycles. It comes from a stable, predictable environment where businesses can operate with confidence, where permits are processed efficiently, where suppliers are paid within 30 days, and where infrastructure supports, rather than undermines, economic activity.
The DA believes North West requires a decisive shift from announcement-driven governance to delivery-driven governance. That means restoring financial discipline in municipalities, professionalising provincial departments, prioritising infrastructure maintenance, rooting out corruption in procurement systems, and actively supporting small and emerging businesses, the real engines of job creation.
The people of North West are not asking for optimistic speeches. They are asking for working roads, reliable water, safe communities, functioning municipalities, and real economic opportunity. Until those fundamentals are fixed, no amount of memoranda, strategies, or celebratory statements will change the daily reality facing residents.
The Democratic Alliance will continue to provide firm oversight, practical alternatives, and accountable leadership to ensure that this province moves beyond rhetoric and towards real, measurable progress.