Today, the KZN MEC for Finance, Ms Ina Cronjé who is also uMgungundlovu District Political Champion addressed a contingency of uMgungundlovu District Municipality officials who attended the final day of the two-day Growth and Development Summit which was held at the Royal Show Grounds in Pietermaritzburg.
uMgungundlovu District Municipality hosted the Historic Growth & Development Summit for the Midlands Region, inspired by the National Planning Commission as well as the Provincial Growth & Development Plan. This is one of the first District Municipalities to host the summit to which a wide range of important Stakeholders are invited to make their significant contributions towards shaping the common destiny of the 1.1 million Citizens who reside within the district.
Speaking at the summit the District Mayor Cllr Yusuf Bamjee said that “In line with the national and provincial strategy and our vision of becoming a Metro, uMgungundlovu District Municipality has planned a District Growth and Development Summit”
“The Summit was aimed at defining and guiding the development of the District Growth and Development Plan in a bid to: Set a long term vision and direction for development in the District, Serve as an overarching strategic framework for development in the district and its family of municipalities, Provide spatial context and prioritisation” said Bamjee.
Addressing the summit MEC Cronjé encouraged the district officials to do it for themselves and make things happen for the district.
“This summit put the district on the map as a place where people can come and invest, where things are happening. It is saying to people - this is the district on the move come and help us build it and grow it because this is the district with enormous potential” she said.
“With hard work, vision and dedication this district can fly. It is very visionary of the district to have organised the summit of this nature. With growth, development, trade, industry and all other activities to attract people to the district, the district has to be pro-active because if you seat in your corner and wait for people to knock on your door you will lose out” said Cronjé.
For more information contact:
Ms Mbali Mwandla
Cell: 073 159 1879
Background:
The summit was aimed at defining and guiding the development of the District Growth and Development Plan in a bid to: Set a long term vision and direction for development in the District, Serve’s an overarching strategic framework for development in the district and its family of municipalities, provide spatial context and prioritisation.
To guide activities and resource allocation of the district and other sphere of government, business sector, organised labour and other role players from the civil society that can contribute to development in the district, Establish clear institutional arrangement to secure buy in and ownership, through a structured consultation process with all developmental planners, Align and integrate departmental strategic plans, municipal government IDP’s and sector strategies and plans around the key goals and objectives of PGDS.
One plan for all “ownership”, Ensure resource commitment and budget alignment, Propose specific milestones that will have to be achieved in priority sectors, Should inform all planning and implementation including Service delivery Budget Implementation Plans.
