Government Commends eThekwini Municipality for Leading Metropolitan Employment Gains
BY: CHANON LECODEY MERRICKS | ONLINE EDITOR
Government Commends eThekwini Municipality for Leading Metropolitan Employment Gains
By KasiBCAfrica News
DURBAN, KWAZULU-NATAL — The national government has formally commended the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality and Executive Mayor Cyril Xaba following the release of Statistics South Africa's Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the second quarter of 2026.
The latest data reveals that eThekwini recorded the lowest unemployment rate among all South African metropolitan municipalities, signaling notable progress for job creation in KwaZulu-Natal.
eThekwini QLFS Q2 2026 Key Performance Indicators
According to Stats SA, eThekwini's local economic performance stood out against national labor trends:
- Official Unemployment Rate: Dropped to 21.2% in Q2 2026, down by 5.6 percentage points from 26.8% in Q2 2025. This places eThekwini ahead of the City of Cape Town (21.9%) and well below the national unemployment rate of 33.6%.
- Job Creation: The total number of employed residents in eThekwini reached 1.29 million, reflecting a net gain of 90,000 jobs year-on-year.
- Unemployment Reduction: The number of unemployed residents declined by 92,000 to 347,000, making eThekwini the only South African metro to record declines in unemployment both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year.
- Labor Absorption Rate: Rose to 46.9% (up from 44.2% a year prior), recording the highest absorption rate improvement of any metropolitan area.
- Formal Sector Sector Growth: Employment growth was heavily concentrated in the formal economy, which employed 948,000 people—an increase of 32,000 jobs quarter-on-quarter.
The Presidential eThekwini Working Group
Government attributes these economic gains directly to multi-sphere governance interventions led by the Presidential Working Group on eThekwini.
The intergovernmental body—combining national ministries, the KZN provincial government, and municipal officials—has focused on unlocking key structural bottlenecks across the metro:
- Water Security & Sanitation Infrastructure: Accelerating wastewater treatment works rehabilitation and reducing non-revenue water losses.
- Tourism & Coastal Economy: Fully reopening operational beaches and restoring port-adjacent tourism zones, resulting in record tourism spend in the metro.
- Investment Facilitation: Streamlining development approvals and supporting industrial precincts to promote formal job retention.
Official Statements
Executive Mayor Cyril Xaba welcomed the QLFS results while noting that economic recovery remains an ongoing effort.
"These figures show that the fundamentals we have been working on—which include infrastructure, investment facilitation, and support for the industrial and tourism sectors—are translating into jobs for our residents. We do not read this as a finish line... More than 340,000 people in this city are still looking for work, but the direction of travel is correct." — Councillor Cyril Xaba, Executive Mayor of eThekwini
Government Communications (GCIS) emphasized that it will sustain the momentum established through intergovernmental working groups to ensure long-term economic stability across KwaZulu-Natal.
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