Thousands of residents of Imbali in Pietermaritzburg, have today poured their hearts out to KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) MEC for Finance about the state of development and insufficient business support for them to be able to start own businesses and create jobs in their areas.
Accompanied by Msunduzi Mayor, Chris Ndlela and local politicians, MEC Ina Cronjé took to Imbali’s Unit 13 where she interacted with about 4 000 of residents on the up-coming provincial budget. The roadshow was her fourth and last one before the presentation of the provincial budget on 9 March 2012.
Jabulane Nene, a resident of Imbali said they would like MEC Cronjé to teach basic financial literacy skills to women so that they can take good care of their household budgets.
“We need mobile clinics, and ambulances, flushable toilets and the general support to the local business fraternity “, he said.
Other requests included assisting business people who had their businesses burnt down in the early 80s in the midst of political violence.
Cronjé said it is important for communities to understand how government does the budget and how they can contribute in the general management of finances of tax payers ‘money.
“We do not want to have a community that cannot manage own household budgets because this forces you to go to loan sharks all the time. We must all learn to save,” she said.
The objective of the roadshow is to educate communities about how the budget is put together as well as the need for the budget to satisfy the priorities of government which include job creation, rural development, improvement of health and education as well as fighting crime.
Msunduzi Mayor, Cllr Ndlela said budget roadshows are important as they get communities to participate in government programmes.
For more information:
Musa Cebisa
Cell: 071 687 8777
