- DA pickets for jobs at Mpumalanga International Food Market
- A fully functional Mpumalanga International Food Market can employ 600 people.
- Youth unemployment in Mpumalanga is at an alarming rate of 44.7%.
16 July 2026
Release: Immediate
Today, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Mpumalanga picketed outside the Mpumalanga International Food Market (MIFM), requesting the Provincial Government to immediately operationalise the facility and explain the continued delays that have left a multi-billion-rand project standing idle while unemployment continues to soar.
At the moment, Mpumalanga province faces a very bleak picture where the unemployment rate increased from 32.3% to 36.3% in the last quarter alone (January to March 2026). The youth are the most affected by unemployment. Currently, youth unemployment in Mpumalanga is at an alarming rate of 44.7%, one of the highest in the country. This is a crisis that needs both the Provincial Government and the Private Sector to tackle.
The DA welcomed the announcement on June 8, 2026, that the Mpumalanga Provincial Government have reached a major milestone by welcoming their first client, Green Farm Nuts, at the MIFM. They said the launch marked the beginning of the MIFM operational phase; but nothing much has since happened in terms of the 100 000 direct and indirect jobs that were promised to the people of the province.
This is the reason why the DA picketed outside the MIFM on Thursday. We are demanding that the MIFM must be operationalised urgently so that the 100 000 jobs that were promised to our people can be realised. This will help to curb the unemployment rate in the province.
So far, the Mpumalanga Provincial Government has not given clear reasons why the MIFM is not fully operational. Our people deserve answers and jobs.
Construction of the MIFM started in 2013, and the Provincial Department of Agriculture estimated that the construction would cost R1 billion over a period of five years. However, so far up to R3 billion has been spent, but the MIFM is still not open.
There are allegations that a Mpumalanga Construction Mafia is preventing the MIFM from becoming operational despite the province spending over R3 billion on the project to date. If true, the Provincial Government must explain what steps it has taken to protect this critical economic investment and prevent criminal interference from costing Mpumalanga residents urgently needed jobs. If the allegations are unfounded, government must disclose the real reasons for the delays.
The delays and failures on this R3 billion project are a shocking indication of the poor planning and mismanagement which the ANC government in Mpumalanga continues to deliver.
The DA has also reminded the Provincial Government that as part of their Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP) for 2025 to 2029, they promised to create 60 000 jobs per year for Mpumalanga residents. But they have failed to reach their target for the 2025/2026 financial year. They only created 28 717 jobs, almost 50% of their target.