The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) shows that South Africa is still not managing to significantly move the needle on its joblessness crisis.
Data for the last quarter of 2025 shows that the country’s expanded unemployment rate remains at a staggering 42.1% – only a marginal decline from the previous quarter’s 42.4%. Two of South Africa’s most populated provinces are in trouble; Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal shed 54,000 and 41,000 jobs respectively. These two provinces are home to around 45% of South Africa’s population and represent a significant slice of the country’s economy, which is why their latest jobs numbers are of particular concern.
By contrast, the Western Cape recorded the lowest expanded unemployment rate, 23.7%, as well as adding the most jobs of any province: 93,000 quarter-on-quarter, almost as many as Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal lost.
The data from the QLFS as well as the Centre for Risk Analysis’s latest Quality of Life Index (QOLI) both confirm the longstanding reality that the Western Cape is South Africa’s most functional province.
The QOLI uses ten weighted indicators that are indicative of the quality of life of a person or household, and draws comparisons between the country’s nine provinces. Each indicator has been calibrated as a score of between 0 and 10, with scores closer to 0 indicating poor performance and those closer to 10 showing better performance. Overall, the Western Cape was the best-performing province with a QOLI score of 5.9 out of 10, followed by Gauteng at 5.5. The worst performing provinces, each with a score of 4.5, were the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga. South Africa as a whole achieved a score of 5.1.
When looking at each QOLI indicator individually, the difference between the performance of the Western Cape and the other eight provinces is even more stark. In 2024, the Western Cape had the highest number of adults holding a degree (12.5%): three times higher than Mpumalanga (3.8%) and the North West (3.9%).
The Western Cape’s Quarter 2 expanded unemployment rate of 27% was half that of the North West at 54%. In Limpopo, only 10.5% of households spent R10 000 or more per month, while the proportion in the Western Cape was 39%. Only 9.8% of households in the Western Cape experienced irregular or no waste removal. It was the only province where the proportion fell below 20%. In the Free State and Mpumalanga, more than half the population experienced irregular waste removal, at 53% and 50.8% respectively. A quarter (25.4%) of households in the Western Cape were able to afford medical aid, ensuring access to quality healthcare. This was more than twice the rate for the Eastern Cape (10.4%), KwaZulu-Natal (10.2%), Limpopo (10%) and Mpumalanga (10.4%). The Western Cape also led with households having access to a basic sanitation facility, being able to afford a bond, and having access to piped water.
Good measure
Access to water is a good measure of service delivery and contributes to the overall assessment of the quality of life in the country. South Africa had a score of 8.8 for access to piped water, meaning that the vast majority of households in the country had access to water through clean and convenient means. However, that accessibility is being threatened by ageing infrastructure and a lack of maintenance. More than half of the households in seven provinces experienced water disruptions at least a couple of times in a year. Johannesburg, the nation’s economic hub, has now become synonymous with the water crisis. Just recently the city made headlines, as residents of Melville, Westdene, Parktown and Emmarentia were without water for weeks.
Cape Town and the Western Cape, however, have largely managed to avoid the water issues plaguing the rest of the country. According to Stats SA, only 3.8% of households in the Western Cape experienced water interruptions once a month, a couple of times a month or once a week. This is far better than Mpumalanga (67.2%), KwaZulu-Natal (62%), Limpopo (54.7%), North West (45.8%), the Northern Cape (44.1%), the Eastern Cape (37.7%), the Free State (27.2%), and Gauteng (20.6%).
Cape Town also has a small percentage of households that experience water interruptions lasting at least for 48 hours. Only 6.9% of households in the Cape Town had to endure water interruptions for two days or longer, compared to 40.3% in Nelson Mandela Bay, 28.6% in eTthekwini, 27.5% in Buffalo City, 25.3% in Johannesburg, 23.2% in Tshwane, 21.8% in Mangaung, and 17.4% in Ekurhuleni.
This is not to say that the Western Cape does not have major issues. The province performed poorly in the crime indicator, having the second highest murder rate, at 58 murders per 100 000 people – far higher than the national rate of 39. The Western Cape provincial government ascribes this to the South African Police Service being a national competency which is under-resourced and understaffed. The provincial government has therefore been advocating for greater police autonomy and the devolution of policing powers. While the devolution of policing is still resisted by national government, the Western Cape government has begun to implement other measures to improve safety and security in the province.
Hotspot areas
The Law Enforcement Advancement Programme (LEAP) is a joint initiative between the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Government to deploy more law enforcement officers within priority hotspot areas, with the objective of stabilising crime in the areas and improving safety. These hotspots include Delft, Khayelitsha, Philippi East, Nyanga, Mitchells Plain and Gugulethu. Recently released third-quarter data from the South African Police Service shows that murder in the Western Cape has declined by 11% between October and December 2023 and October and December 2025. During this period, there has been a decline in murder in Delft (-14.7%), Khayelitsha (-28.6%), Philippi East (-14.3%), Nyanga (-4.1%), and Gugulethu (-28.8%).
The Western Cape cannot fully escape the issues that plague broader South African society, such as crime, inequality and unemployment. However, the province has made considerable progress on many of these issues, too. Unemployment contributes to poverty and inequality. Crime and water supply interruptions harm businesses and economic growth, and most importantly, impinge on health and safety.
Nevertheless, the Western Cape has shown that despite a tough economic and political situation it can improve the fundamentals.
[Image: Dewald Van Rensburg from Pixabay]
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