Kuils River, Brackenfell feature in jobs study

Kuils River Civic Association chair Isaac Jenecke says the government’s failure to create jobs should be scrutinised.

Kuils River workplaces rank among the top in a list of places with good employment opportunities and low inequality in Cape Town.

This is according to National Treasury’s Cities Support Programme: City Specialised Economic Data report.

Researchers collected tax data in the form of IRP5s and IT3(a) tax forms to visualise job opportunities for the report, which was released last month.

“From an employment perspective, the Cape Town City Bowl has the highest number of full-time employees, with a high number of opportunities along the N1 corridor and parts of the southern suburbs (Claremont and surrounds),” the report says.

“Despite the general increase in employment opportunities for the metro overall, these new opportunities are not distributed equally across the city, with a disproportionate amount of the new opportunities focused on the Atlantic Seaboard, parts of Milnerton, to some extent in Noordhoek and surrounds, as well as Somerset West and parts of Elsies River and Kuils River.”

However, the report also notes a lack of progress and often loss of formal jobs on the Cape Flats and Robben Island and in Klipheuwel and Gordon’s Bay.

The report says jobs paying below R6 400 are mainly located in Brackenfell, Khayelitsha, Mitchell’s Plein and, to some extent, Somerset West and Noordhoek.

Workers who earned slightly more were located in Epping, Ottery, Atlantis and Kuils River, which is known for its industrial areas and a “certain level of skilled labour required”.

“Beyond the R12 800 band, there’s a noticeable shift towards the City Bowl, the N1 corridor and parts of Claremont and Kenilworth and this is further compounded towards the CBD above this,” the report says.

The researchers says this confirmed their expectations as head offices and high-skilled jobs are located in the City Bowl and along the N1 corridor.

“The low-income jobs are concentrated in areas known to have lower economic activity. It should also be noted that upon further inspection of the concentration of low-income jobs in Brackenfell, it was discovered that this was an instance where a firm, in this instance a major retailer, (erroneously) submitted most of the IRP5s with the work address designated as the head office,” the report notes

This error, the report adds, could explain why there is a higher concentration of lower income opportunities there than anywhere else, especially since Brackenfell has an industrialised market.

The report highlights an estimated R2 000 difference between the median income of men and women in the informal sector throughout the city.

“In Cape Town, the highest pay disparities exist in Atlantis, the industrial parts of Brackenfell, a corridor from Milnerton to Ndabeni and then across to Elsies River and parts of Mitchell’s Plain,” the report says.

Durbanville and Hout Bay have a slightly higher income for women, the report says.

Researchers found inequality to be “worst” in workspaces in Noordhoek, Hout Bay, and large parts of the southern suburbs.

Areas around Mitchell’s Plain, Khayelitsha, Atlantis and parts of Kuils River showed the lowest amounts of inequality due to these being low-income areas.

Kuils River Civic Association chairman Isaac Jenecke said the report was a farce and its idea was “to justify lack of opportunity”. Instead, he said, the government’s failure to create jobs should be scrutinised.

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