The people of the Eastern Cape must never accept poverty, unemployment and economic decline as permanent features of life in the province.
Our province has the people, natural resources, industrial capacity, ports, agricultural potential and strategic location to become one of SA’s leading investment destinations.
We have established automotive and manufacturing clusters, two special economic zones, three commercial ports, extensive renewable energy potential and significant opportunities in tourism, agro-processing, logistics and the ocean economy.
We also have something investors increasingly struggle to find in SA’s more congested economic centres.
We have room to grow.
The Eastern Cape offers comparatively affordable commercial and industrial property, substantial underused land, access to universities and skills and infrastructure connecting businesses to domestic and international markets.
The reality is that the Eastern Cape could, quite quickly, become the most investable and fastest-growing province in SA.
But that will not happen while our municipalities remain binding constraints on growth.
For most investors, local government is where the daily reality of the state is felt most directly.
It is encountered when they apply for planning approval, request an electricity connection, wait for a building plan, seek clarity on zoning, report a water leak, or attempt to move goods along a municipal road.
When those basic functions fail, investment stalls. When investment stalls, growth falls and jobs are lost.
Reliable water and electricity are the very basic essentials for business expansion, while efficient planning systems determine whether development can proceed.
Failing roads, sewerage systems and power infrastructure drive up operating costs for manufacturers, and neglected public spaces and unreliable services undermine the viability of tourism enterprises.
Municipal failure is therefore not merely a service delivery problem. It is an economic problem.
Broken municipalities raise the risk profile for investors substantially and weaken their risk tolerance.
Capital flows through the path of least resistance, and it is a municipality’s job to reduce the risk profile of their destination to compete for capital.
The evidence of municipal failure is all around us.
The scale of that failure is reflected in the Eastern Cape’s employment figures.
In the first quarter of 2026, official unemployment outside the province’s two metros reached 53.4%, compared with 28.7% in Buffalo City and 29.8% in Nelson Mandela Bay.
Our metropolitan municipalities should be the engines of innovation, manufacturing excellence, tourism and services that drive provincial growth and jobs.
Nelson Mandela Bay alone contributes more than 35% of the Eastern Cape economy, valued at about R188bn.
Yet, according to the Eastern Cape Socio-Economic Consultative Council, the metro recorded average annual economic growth of just 0.18% between 2013 and 2023, the lowest of any region in the province.
When an economic engine of that size stalls, the consequences are felt far beyond the metro through suppliers, farmers, transport operators, tourism businesses and household incomes across the Eastern Cape.
Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela Bay must become competitive and complex economic centres that attract capital and skills, support entrepreneurs and connect surrounding towns and rural communities to markets.
Their success must create opportunities throughout the province rather than becoming islands of relative economic activity surrounded by decline.
Turning our unemployment crisis around begins with municipalities that understand their role as enablers of growth, making it easier for businesses to grow and create jobs.
That means reliable water and electricity, functioning wastewater systems, maintained roads, clean public spaces, credible financial management and professional administrations staffed by competent people.
It also means making it easier to invest.
Municipalities should establish dedicated investment desks capable of guiding projects through planning, zoning, licensing, infrastructure and regulatory processes.
Applications should be tracked digitally, subjected to clear deadlines and resolved transparently.
Available municipal land must be audited, serviced and released for productive use.
Municipal accounts must be accurate, suppliers must be paid on time and infrastructure maintenance must be planned before systems collapse.
Procurement must deliver value for residents rather than opportunities for politically connected insiders.
Prosperity is not produced by government decree.
It is created when people can establish businesses, find work, invest with confidence, develop skills, own property and build secure futures for their families.
The government’s responsibility is to provide the foundation and remove the obstacles that prevent the full potential of human creativity and ingenuity from unleashing prosperity for all.
The upcoming local government elections are therefore about far more than who occupies the mayoral office.
They present a choice between municipalities that constrain opportunity and municipalities that enable it.
The Eastern Cape’s decline is not inevitable. By electing capable, accountable governments, our municipalities can become pathways to investment, jobs and prosperity.
We can get our towns and cities working. We can attract investment. We can create jobs. We can give people a reason to build their futures here.
When municipalities work, people work and economies grow.
Andrew Whitfield MPL, DA, leader of the official opposition in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature
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