Premier Oscar Mabuyane has called on the people of Eastern Cape to seek for employment within the province to assist in building local industries.
Mabuyanne was speaking on Sunday at the opening of the ANC’s provincial executive committee (PEC) lekgotla in East Lonndon.
According to Mabuyane, seeking for employment in other provinces undermines development in the Eastern Cape.
“We cannot allow this to continue because it means our people will continue travelling to other provinces to seek employment when they should be working in their own province, closer to their homes,” he said.
Mabuyane said the ANC risks losing power if it doesn’t address the unemployment issue.
“On the economic front, we must come up with programmes to alleviate the unemployment challenge in our province. If there is one thing that makes our people despondent about the ANC, it is unemployment
“If we rely too much on business to address this challenge, we will lose power. We are in government, we hold the public purse, we must intervene to create jobs for our people,” he said.
The Stats South Africa’s latest quarterly labour force survey shows the North West and Eastern Cape are the only provinces where unemployment exceeds employment.
