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Cape Town - The Quarterly Labour Force Survey, released by Stats SA on Monday, showed the Western Cape was the only province in the country that saw a decline in unemployment.
"Where the DA governs, we manage the economy properly and cut corruption so that thousands of new jobs are created," said Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille.
Quarter-on-quarter unemployment declined by 0.1% in the Western Cape, while it increased in all other provinces in the statistics.
Zille said: "The report shows that the DA government in the Western Cape has created 146 000 jobs over the last year... more than double what the ANC governments created in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape."
Clean government
Western Cape Finance and Economic Development MEC Alan Winde also weighed in, insisting the province's focus on clean government was contributing to its successes.
"Through our focus on rooting out corruption and improving our financial governance, the DA-run Western Cape has been voted the cleanest province in South Africa by the auditor general," Winde said.
"The presidency has also rated the Western Cape as the best performing provincial government in the country."
Statistician General Pali Lehohla revealed that quarter-on-quarter employment rates declined in the first three months of the year.
"The bulk of [job] losses were in the informal sector," Lehohla said.
Employment in the formal sector remained largely stable, with 10.8 million people employed.
Western Cape shines
"The largest level of participation was in the Western Cape," he said.
The decrease in employment meant that unemployment figures rose by 1.1 percentage points from quarter-to-quarter.
The year-on-year picture looked better with employment rising by 496 000.
Unemployment, however, also grew by 205 000.
The trade sector contributed the most to the rise in employment with 154 00 jobs being created, followed by community and social services at 132 000 work opportunities.
