Special Economic Zones will empower thousands in the Limpopo province, particularly the Musina-Makhado SEZ, where major investments are being made.
Limpopo premier Chupu Mathabatha provided a ray of hope in his 2020 State of the Province Address , which revealed ambitious plans for job creation and progress in delivering services to the people.
“Some of these job losses can be attributed to the fact that some mines in Sekhukhune, Lepelle-Nkumpi and Vhembe were placed under care and maintenance. As a matter of fact, we lost over 11 000 jobs as a result of these mines being placed under this process,” he said. Musina-Makhado has been divided into two zones — North and South — with plans to tap into global trade. “As we speak, we have completed the External Master Plans for both the Southern and Northern parts of the SEZ,” he said. An Environmental Impact Assessment study for the SEZ’s Northern side is nearing completion, while the process is at 90% for the Southern side.
The Seshego, Nkowankowa and Thohoyandou Industrial Parks including agro-processing, manufacturing, storage facilities and recycling have already created a total of 6 256 jobs. Mathabatha said he has assembled a team of experts to work on a sustainable development model that will revitalise agriculture and the agro-processing value chain plans.
Mathabatha revealed the projected harvest for cotton is 522 tonnes, with an estimated 300 seasonal jobs created during the harvesting period. Mathabatha said a total of 515 schools in the province would benefit from a process of constructing decent school sanitation infrastructure. The appointment of contractors to build sanitation infrastructure in 215 schools will happen before the end of next month.
He said the other projects at various stages of completion include the Nebo Bulk Water Supply at 90% physical progress; the Moutse Water Treatment Works at 90% physical progress; the Malekana Water Treatment Works at 90% physical progress and the Nandoni to Nsami Pipeline project at 54% physical progress.
Mathabatha reported that government has since purchased 75 buses, 13 of which were delivered last week and that the remaining 62 buses would be received by the end of April.Good news in the health sector is that the Voortrekker Hospital in Mokopane, a special hospital for children, is nearly ready. The hospital will specialise in mother and child care.
“Accordingly, we are ensuring that more and more of our clinics have good infrastructure, adequate staff, adequate medicine, good administrative processes, and sufficient bulk supplies,” he said. Mathabatha said this move is aimed at building the capacity of municipalities to provide basic services and to support local economic development through a sound yet flexible regulatory regime.
But Mathabatha said in the last audit the province managed to receive two clean audit opinions and that the number of unqualified audit opinions had also increased. He said he will sign performance agreements with MECs and, following the recent adoption of Medium Term Strategic Framework targets, this will be done before the end of next month.
Mathabatha commended the municipalities that received an unqualified audit opinion. They include Makhuduthamaga local municipality; Waterberg district municipality, Thulamela local municipality, Molemole local municipality and Letaba local municipality. According to the presidency, the Khawuleza District Development Model is “a new district-based co-ordination model [that] aims to address service delivery and economic development challenges through the synchronisation of planning across all spheres of government, working alongside social partners such as business and community”.
The Peace Table Grapes co-operative in Moganyaka village near Marble Hall in the Ephraim Mogale District won the export category of the Female Farmer of the Year Awards in the province last year. He said it will focus on research and development, land availability and access, finance and partnership models; production, markets and logistics and capacity building and training.Mathabatha also announced during the 2020 Sopa that as part of its commitment to invest in training and skills development of farmers, to date, the province has trained over 960 farmers.
The premier said government has put together a team of experts to drive agro-processing value chain plan. He said the plan, which should be finalised in June this year, will focus on research and development, land availability and access; finance and partnership models; production, markets and logistics and capacity building and training.
“In the same vein, we are concluding engagements with regard to the Kolokotela and Setlaboswana Irrigation Schemes,” he said about the projects the run along the Lepelle River in the Marble Hall area.
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