Remarks by the Minister of Human Settlements, Mmamoloko Kubayi at the Presidential Imbizo, Northern Cape, 21 October 2022.
The Honourable President of the Republic of South Africa, President Ramaphosa, Ministers in attendance,
The Honourable Premier of the Northern Cape, Dr Zamani Saul, MECs in attendance,
Executive Mayors,
SALGA Leadership in the Province,
The Provincial House of Traditional Leaders, Members of the business community,
Social partners,
Directors-General of different departments,
The Director-General of the Northern Cape Province, Heads of State Owned Entreprises,
Heads of Departments, Municipal Managers, and
Officials from the three spheres of government,
Good morning,
As a government that is accountable to its people and that has made a commitment to serve its people, today we are here to make good on these two pledges.
Mr President, since delivery of the 2022 State of the Nation Address, you have visited the provinces of the North West, the Free State, Mpumalanga and Gauteng to engage with the communities and assist efforts of unblocking service delivery challenges through the District Development Model (DDM). The Northern Cape becomes the fifth province in your campaign to engage ordinary South Africans, whilst accelerating delivery of services.
The approval and roll out of the District Development Model, commonly known as the DDM by Cabinet was after a realization that there is a need for urgent intervention to improve service delivery in all districts and metro spaces across the country. Accordingly, All the 44 districts and 8 metros have successfully launched the DDM, adopted district One Plans and are at varying levels of implementation.
Mr President, your clarion call, at the occasion of delivering the State of the National Address, for all of us to work together to revitalise the economy and end the inequality and injustice that impede development cannot have come at a better time than now. The DDM is an instrument of government that should be used to promote working together, towards a common purpose.
It is now evident that the DDM creates a conducive environment for implementation of the objectives of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan. It puts into practice the required social compact, whilst ensuring that NO ONE IS LEFT BEHIND. It achieves this by facilitating integrated planning and budgeting across the three spheres of government. It also improves integration of national projects at a district level.
Practice has proven that the DDM provides a platform for implementing the government priorities of:
Massive rollout of infrastructure for improved service delivery;
Employment stimulation to create jobs and support livelihoods; and
Overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr President, our host province today, is the Northern Cape, a province known for its warm people, home to the Augrabies Falls, the Big Hole, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, the choice mutton of the Karakul sheep, the Orange River, with its mouth greeting the Atlantic Ocean at Oranjemund on the southwest coast, the land of diamonds and dunes, of grapes and raisins. This is a province which has the second highest solar radiation levels in the world after Chile, thus attracting investment in the solar farms and plants we see around us.
The Northern Cape Province is constituted of FIVE (5) districts, namely Frances Baard, John Taolo Gaetsewe, Namakwa, Pixley ka Seme and ZF Mgcawu. the host district for today’s imbizo. The youth make up the largest share of population.
The Province contributes 2.2% to the national GDP. The economy of the Northern Cape Province is dependent primarily on mining and agriculture. Tourism and agro processing are potential growth sectors in the Province. Poverty continues to be a challenge in the Northern Cape, as it is across our country. The leading challenges facing the Province include:
Lack of safe and reliable water supply;
High unemployment rate;
Inadequate roads;
High backlog on refuse removal;
Intermittent supply of water and electricity;
Municipalities with high Eskom Debts;
Municipalities owed by sector departments;
Carrying capacity of existing infrastructure;
Aged infrastructure and resultant intermittent supply of services;
Poor operation and maintenance of infrastructure;
Theft and vandalism of infrastructure;
Land invasion and mushrooming of informal settlements
Following on cabinet’s decision to rollout the District Development Model (DDM), the Premier of the Province embarked on a process of mainstreaming the DDM in their programming, supported by other planning instruments such as the municipal Integrated development plans (IDPs), the spatial development plans (SDFs) and other sector plans. District technical and political structures were set up to facilitate the profiling of each district as well as the development of the district One Plans.
The District Champions, Ministers and deputy ministers deployed by the Presidency to support this process were formally welcomed by the Premier and paired with MECs deployed by the Premier.
All the five districts developed their One Plans in 2021 and in the process of refining based on the comments received from the Quality Assurance process conducted by national CoGTA. National COGTA and the DPME are supporting the province with mobilisation of sector departments and government entities. This includes mobilization of resources to implement unfunded catalytic projects.
On Projects to Diversify and Grow People and Economy The Square Kilometre Array
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is known as a scientific research initiative; however, its establishment has potential to yield a number of other economic spin offs which are not necessarily related to the purpose of the project itself. Such spin offs would be realised in the tourism sector especially if we consider that with the development of the Science Visitors Centre (SVC) tourists would be lured to the vicinity. Other business initiatives will amongst others include establishment of teams to clear the alien invasive plant (Prosopis). Development of charcoal manufacturing kilns using Prosopis cut of stumps. This will be done benchmarking on the Working for Water (WfW) model. This is a labour- intensive exercise which can absorb all levels of job seekers.
Namakwa Special Economic Zone (SEZ)
The proposed Namakwa SEZ is strategically located along a bulk commodity corridor, which runs from a planned port on the Atlantic coast (the Boegoebaai Deep Port Harbour) through Aggeneys to the large urban centre of Upington and beyond to the concentrations of iron ore and manganese ore at Sishen and Kathu.
Boegoebaai Deep Sea Port
The Northern Cape is planning for a massive harbor development to be located at one of South Africa’s few natural deep-water sites at Boegoe Baai on the arid Namaqualand coastline. The mooted development is estimated at about R40 billion and could anchor the transformation of the province’s economic landscape. The development had been undertaken subsequent and related large-scale industrialization and commercialization phases could see the Northern Cape could attract a total investment of R200 billion investment resulting in the creation of as many as 50 000 permanent jobs.
On Comparative Advantage of the ZF Mgcawu District
Climatic Conditions: The harsh conditions of the Kalahari are conducive for fruit and wine farms producing goods such as sultana grapes, deciduous fruits, table wine and brandy. However, the main agricultural activities that take place in the District includes grape production, livestock production and game farming. Water infrastructure availability
Water availability: The Northern Cape is home to two of the biggest rivers in South Africa, namely the Orange and the Vaal River.
Grape Cultivation: The Northern Cape Province produces approximately 25% of the country’s table grape output per year, the second highest after the Western Cape.
Country Borders: The Northern Cape borders Namibia and Botswana which could directly be seen as a comparative advantage.
Tourism Attractions: The Northern Cape takes pride in its scenic beauty, natural phenomena and abundant plant species.
On Catalytic Projects
Adequate Housing and improved quality living environments – Provision of 3000 serviced stands mainly across the Dawid Kruiper Local Municipality, with most of them having been fully serviced and awaiting housing grants from provincial and national government.
Red Stone CSP Thermal Plant- This is renewable energy project to which the president paid a visit yeaterday.
Upington Industrial Park (UIP) – The Upington Industrial Park is situated next to Upington International Airport.
To ensure economic growth that will lead to increased development and prosperity for the people of the Northern Cape Province and ZF Mgcawu a conscious effort is required to change the economic trajectory of the region. To achieve this, the following developmental outcomes have been identified:
Agriculture and Agro-Processing
Mining and Mineral Beneficiation
Tourism Market Development
Development of the Energy Sector
Manufacturing and Trade
Competitive Infrastructure Development
Employment and Skills Development
Innovation and the Knowledge Economy
The Maritime Economy
Sustainable Environmental Sustainability
Sustainable Human Settlements
The DDM is an instrument of government that should be used to promote working together, towards a common purpose. If implemented it can yield very good outcomes socially and economically across the country.
I thank you!
Source: Government of South Africa