Western Cape premier Alan Winde is targeting the creation of new infrastructure and mobility in his drive to create jobs.

Winde made the announcement during his state of the province address at the Velddrif town hall on Tuesday.

He said the infrastructure department would combine the departments of human settlements and public works. The mobility department would focus on what he called “a critical component of a job-creating economy”.

Both departments would be closely aligned with the private sector, and Winde said consultations on the restructuring would start soon with staff and unions.

“We need to make it happen as quickly as possible to make the biggest difference we can in creating jobs,” said Winde.

“Jobs must be our obsession,” he said, after noting the proportion of hungry households in the Western Cape had grown from 11.3% in 2019 to 17% in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This is a huge issue, and that’s why we have to focus on this second pandemic of joblessness and hunger.”

Winde said he was introducing an extended cabinet to focus on jobs and it would use the lessons learned from the management of Covid-19.

The extended Covid-19 cabinet was focused, collaborative, innovative and “intensely obsessed with protecting our citizens and saving lives”, he said.

“That way of working is what I want to harness,” he said, adding that the jobs cabinet would have space for “some of the very best business and entrepreneurial minds in our province”.

Winde said investment in energy would be key in driving the economic recovery, revealing the City of Cape Town had plans to generate 300MW of energy.

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is expected to detail these plans on Wednesday.

Repeating his call for national government to end the state of disaster, Winde said the latest assessment of seroprevalence in the Western Cape showed 90% of people had immunity as a result of previous infection and vaccination.

“It is clear through data and evidence that we have moved beyond the pandemic. It is time we normalise this virus.”

TimesLIVE