Dr. Pali Lehohla said the Eastern Cape has the potential to become an economic powerhouse but remains trapped by its colonial legacy.
This assessment comes as the province struggles with a stagnant economy and a rising jobless rate, threatening long-term regional stability.
Lehohla, the former Statistician-General of South Africa, said the region has not yet broken free from its historical role as a labour-sending province. This legacy continues to influence the current economic structure, limiting local growth and industrialization.
Recent data highlights the severity of the crisis. Unemployment in the Eastern Cape increased to over 47% from 44% in the second quarter of 2026 [1]. The surge reflects a widening gap between the province's natural resources and its actual economic output.
Lehohla said the province must unlock its economic potential to address these systemic failures. He said that without a strategic shift away from the colonial-era model of exporting labor, the region will continue to see high levels of poverty.
Efforts to revitalize the province involve addressing the stagnation that has characterized the local economy for years. The current trend in unemployment suggests that previous interventions have not yet reversed the downward trajectory.
The former Statistician-General said the Eastern Cape possesses the necessary assets to drive national growth. However, the transition from a labor reserve to a productive economic hub requires structural changes to the way the province operates.
“The Eastern Cape has the potential to become an economic powerhouse.”
The rise in unemployment to nearly half the population indicates a systemic failure to create local industry in the Eastern Cape. By framing the issue as a colonial legacy, Lehohla suggests that the problem is not merely a lack of investment, but a structural dependency on other provinces for employment that persists decades after the end of apartheid.
