Winde calls on Ramaphosa to prioritise job creation, economic growth in SONA speech

CAPE TOWN - With President Cyril Ramaphosa set to deliver his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday evening, the Western Cape government is calling on him to prioritise job creation and driving a thriving economy.

The President's speech is expected to address some of the issues facing the country as well as government plans for the year ahead.

"For us here in the Western Cape, we are really interested in what he's going to say about making sure we grow our economy, getting jobs in place because that makes the biggest difference to the most people. Economic growth is what we need and we cannot grow it at the rate that we are growing at now," said Western Cape Premier Alan Winde.
 
He's urged Ramaphosa to prioritise urgent structural reforms to fix all ports of entry and the rail network to boost economic growth.

"We need to make sure that he is very clear about how to get private sector involvement into our port, into our rail concessions, how we make sure we grow and expand our airports, not just Cape Town International. We need to make sure that we are investing and helping the private sector airport that is coming to this province. We need to make sure that we support the expansion in the George Airport."

Winde said that infrastructure must be invested in.

"From energy to water, we need to make sure that those enablers are in placed. We also need to make sure we get better policing, resources, and devolution of policing so that we can all work together to metros, cities, law enforcement, officers across this province, across all our municipalities along with the South African Police Services to give our citizens a safer environment."