Hon Deputy Chair, today my heart goes out to the more than 10 million unemployed and many job seeking South African citizens, which cover 56,4% of the youth between the ages of 15 and 24. As I speak, South Africa's official unemployment rate has jumped from 27,6% in the first quarter to 29% in the second quarter, the highest since the start of 2008.
Hon Deputy Chair, the new dawn of President Ramaphosa seems to be a deceased dawn and a pipedream. During the state of the nation address debate the President announced that 200 000 jobs will be created, a few days later though, he stated that massive job cuts are on the table. Unemployment is a time bomb waiting to explode. With an unsustainable economy, we will only see many more job cuts
which this country can no longer afford. This country is in dire need of a desperate boost which can be bought about with policy changers.
Another Eskom bailout, hon Deputy Chair, this time of R59 billion is an absolute insult to South Africans for having to again foot the bill for government failures. The Northern Cape is enduring a harsh drought with 62 000 jobs at risk if no intervention is initiated by the provincial government.
Hon Deputy Chair, with the DA's proposed Jobs Act, we can stimulate the economy to benefit South Africans, as the Act covers many interventions which will lead to creation of jobs, where techniques will be streamlined especially for our business owners and we must revive sectors like the manufacturing sector through tax incentives.
In June this year, the economy suffered a huge blow with poor Gross Domestic Product, GDP, the worst in a decade and the continuous mixed messages from Luthuli house and the government, especially, theirs around the Reserve Bank mandate, this left many prospective investors that could have assisted in job creation in a state of utter unease.
Hon Deputy Chair, we need strong leadership to build a capable uncaptured state that can save South Africa and our unemployed. In order to halt the ever-growing level of unemployment, government needs to invest more resources into education, create an environment for entrepreneurs to thrive and ensure clean and transparent governance. Deputy Chair, in light of this, the DA can therefore not support the budget. Thank you.