By The seventh administration in the Free State province will be faced with a daunting task to capitalise on the economic opportunities in the province and fight the high rate of unemployment, and curb the on-going skilled labour migration to other provinces.
The Free State, now led by Premier MaQueen Letsoha-Mathae, who has already hit the ground running together with her MECs are inheriting a province that has great economic potential with some of its industries laying fallow or hardly exploited to their greatest potential.
The Free State has the potential to drastically reduce the unemployment rate and create jobs for its citizens, mostly the youth. Stats SA released a rather gloomy report of the province in its fourth quarter labour force survey, which showed a decline in the province’s official unemployment rate, from 38.5 percent in the third quarter of 2023 to 37 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023, reflecting a decrease of 1.5 percentage point.
However, during her final budget speech, the former MEC for Finance Gadija Brown presented some positive news towards the provincial economy. According to her, the provincial economy is forecasted, in real terms, to grow by 0.1 percentage points to 1.1 percent in 2024, before rising to 2.1 percent in 2025.
The year 2024 looks good for the province, this growth will mainly rely on the performance of certain sectors, including Community Services, Finance, Trade, Manufacturing and Mining. The sectors are expected to contribute about 29.6 percent, 19.5 percent, 12.9 percent, 10.2 percent, and 9.8 percent respectively towards growth.
Though the mining sector is facing serious problems with some mines dis-investing and shutting down, those mines can be repurposed and be functional and create jobs. The mining sector is a water intensive industry and has huge amounts of water underground almost the size of the Vaal river that can also be economised and create jobs and reduce poverty.
The Transport and Agriculture sectors are forecasted to contribute growth of about 6.8 percent and 6 percent respectively to the provincial growth, whilst the Electricity sector is anticipated to only produce a growth of merely 2 percent.
During its investment conference in February, the Provincial Government was able to attract over 1 billion worth of investment into the province. Some exploits will be around renewable energy, a solar plant that will help take off some of the households off the grid and even supply renewable energy to other provinces.
Renegen has invested about R1 billion to mine helium gas in Virginia. Recently Zero Carbon Charge, launched an off-grid, green, and fast electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, an investment worth R230 million.
About 15 electric passenger vehicle charging stations and seven truck charging stations will be located across the province in the following local municipalities: Mohokare, Ngwathe, Mestimaholo, Mafube, Tokologo, Maluti A Phofung, Mangaung, Dihlabeng, Kopanong, Phumelela, Moqhaka, Mantsopa and Masilonyana.
The province also has about five main national roads passing through it, an opportunity to explore some commercial activity that will benefit the Free State. There are also fibre cables that pass through the province and many other economic opportunities in other sectors including tourism and the built industry.
Part of the reason that the unemployment rate is high in the Free State, according to the ANC in the province, is that, as mines shut-down, some of the workers from other countries, do not go back home instead they opt to stay in the province whilst not working, thus contributing to the high rate of unemployment.
Coupled with that; due to lack of opportunities, the labour market in the province is shrinking by the day, as skilled persons migrate to other provinces or countries in search of greener postures. To curb this, the new administration will have to create opportunities for highly skilled persons as well. The province is able to grow its economy and create thousands of job opportunities.
The province is at the centre of the country and presents lucrative opportunities for logistics, tourism, storage, renewable energy, agriculture and mining amongst others.
