The fighting of poverty and creation of jobs will be realised by aggressively skilling rural people so that they can have vibrant and sustainable economic development programmes, MEC for Rural Development and Agrarian Reform Zoleka Capa on Tuesday, 6 September 2011.
Speaking during the pre-launch of the Provincial Textile Cooperative at Tsolo Agriculture and Rural Development Institute, the MEC announced that the department has set aside R5 million in its bid to train rural women, youth and disabled in the textile industry.
The MEC told the gathering that the department has already spent about R2 million to buy top of the range sewing material including machines and good quality fabric and the remaining R3 million will utilised to train people.
MEC Capa said in the next financial year she would ensure about R10 million is set aside for this programme.
“Fighting poverty depends on the skilling of people. We will win the battle of underdevelopment by training rural people by taking training to their door steps,” she said
The MEC stressed that the department “does not want to pilot the project because some pilots end up being just pilots and fail to spread across the province – this is a provincial wide campaign.”
The department has engaged a number of Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges around the province, which will be utilised to train people that were already in the textile industry so that they can in turn train others in the villages. Mpofu Training Centre and Tsolo Agriculture and Rural Development Institute, which are under the auspices of the department and are also in involved in textile training will also be utilised.
The MEC said she has engaged churches and traditional authority to provide space in their properties so that people can be taught closer to their homes – “we want to bring the FET Colleges to the people.”
She added that the FET College will also help in the recognition of prior learning to the people already involved in the industry while the Textile Sector Education and Training Authority (Seta) will be engaged to ensure quality of the production and training.
The pre-launching of the cooperatives and the training will be rolled out throughout the province this year and the MEC highlighted that the actual launch will be done when the programme has been rolled out successfully.
The MEC’s initiative has been widely welcomed as a groundbreaking development by the traditional and religious leaders, councilors and representatives from the FET Colleges, including the intended beneficiaries
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