13 February 2009
North West Premier, Edna Molewa, regards infrastructure development and the
involvement of the masses that saw Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP)
creating more than 8 000 jobs in 2007/08 as key to the vision of economic
development, halving poverty and employment by 2014.
Molewa was speaking today in her State of the Province Address during the
opening of Provincial Legislature. âRepresentative of this is the Modimola
project, whose third phase closed at the end of the 2006/07 financial year,â
she said. Fifteen hectares of land are under vegetable production and a total
of 30 families are direct permanent beneficiaries, deriving sustainable jobs
from the project.
The project also has road construction project, which has employed 209
beneficiaries so far and 27 more have been employed in the construction of two
community halls, and small emerging contractors have benefited from this
project and were also trained to compete for future contracts.
Molewa cited projects such as the Taung Irrigation Scheme â which is
allocated R300m over ten years - the Western Frontier Cattle Beneficiation
Initiative, aimed at benefiting small and commercial farmers; Taung Tourism,
aimed at developing the potential in and around the Taung dam, including the
Taung Hotel School to address the shortage of hospitality skills in the tourism
industry; and the Wild Silk Project, which investigate the commercial
exploitation of silk worms in the Ganyesa area as ambassadors of war declared
against unemployment.
Through this projects and others in the province, job creation increased
from 771 000 to 841 000 in the past three years, thereby meeting the Provincial
Growth and Development Strategyâs (PGDS) target of 44 000 jobs per annum.
The Premier also said that while other projects might be slowed down by the
downturn in the global economy, the provinceâs infrastructure programmes still
had a massive potential of turning back the frontiers of poverty through job
creation and the training of people in diverse areas in the North West.
Youth Cooperatives Development Centres has been established in Mafikeng and
Vryburg, which aims to turn aspirant young entrepreneursâ casual businesses
into the realm of more formal enterprises, are envisaged to start operation on
March 2009 and similar projects will be established at every local municipality
over the MTEF period.
In a related development, the Small Industrial Parks within the province
have been refurbished at a cost of R10 million, and this to the benefit of
small industrialists.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, North West Provincial Government
13 February 2009
