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Johannesburg - Unemployment has increased since Nomvula Mokonyane took over as Gauteng premier, the DA said on Wednesday.
"Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane's claim that unemployment decreased in the province is misleading, and a clever distortion of the truth," Democratic Alliance MPL Gavin Lewis said in a statement.
"Mokonyane's padding of the stats offers cold comfort to the 1.8 million unemployed people in Gauteng."
On Monday, Mokonyane told the provincial legislature that unemployment in Gauteng decreased by nearly 5% between 2011 and 2012.
It decreased from 28.2% in the first quarter of 2011 to 23.7% in the fourth quarter of 2012, she said, presenting her office's budget in the provincial legislature.
But DA researcher Marius Redelinghuys said she had not used the expanded definition of unemployment, which shows the percentage of people who have given up looking for work.
"The real or expanded definition of unemployment in Gauteng, however, paints a far grimmer picture. According to Statistics SA's first quarter labour force survey for 2013, unemployment in Gauteng is at 30.4%, representing 1.8 million people," Lewis said.
"Unemployment is therefore not only almost seven percent higher than the premier claims, but the actual number of unemployed people in Gauteng is almost half a million, or 481 000 more than when she took office in the second quarter of 2009."
