The Namakwa District had a successful District Development Model (DDM) meeting, led by its political champions, Deputy Minister for Trade, Industry and Competition, Ms Nomalungelo Gina, MEC for Agriculture, Environmental Affairs, Rural Development and Land Reform, Ms Manopole Mase and District Executive Mayor of Namakwa, Councillor Mervin Cloete. The meeting was preceded by the technical stream meeting led by senior officials from all three spheres of government.
The DDM meeting appreciated the extensive work that has been done since the last meeting with regards to the laying of basis for catalytic projects that are now underway for economic stimulation of the District. The DDM as introduced by President Ramaphosa in 2019, has proven to be the most effective mechanism in breaking the silos and coordinate planning by all spheres, and faster implementation than it was before it.
There is no doubt that Namakwa District is a sleeping giant that is awakening economically, and it is taking its rightful place under the sun. Arising from the 9-Point Plan that the DDM leadership set for itself in 2020, and enriched in 2021 – as critical areas for the District development – we are now starting to deal with tangible aspects that are going to be a game changer to the people of Northern Cape.
The work around Namakwa Special Economic Zone with its anchor, Vedanta Zinc International mine, is commendable, including the investors’ appetite demonstrating their interest to settle and open companies in the Zone. The spatial development planning, including around new town development of Aggeneys and the more than 200 housing units for a new township is proceeding well.
The exciting development that is taking shape is the development of Boegoebaai deep sea port with a special focus on the generation of green hydrogen energy. The interest shown by Sasol in investing on the green hydrogen energy working with other partners is encouraging, in Boegoebaai deep sea port. There is also a sharp rise of interest in renewable companies, especially on solar plants and wind farms in the district, thereby showing to us the prospects of thousands future jobs creation.
These game changers forms part of the Northern Cape industrial corridor championed by the provincial government.
“With all of these huge projects taking shape, there is no doubt that Namakwa District is the future employment migration destination. Our spatial planning from municipalities’ level must begin to factor in future population growth levels, taking advantage of the vast land availability in the district, including towns that mining companies like Alexkor are transferring to our municipalities,” said MEC Mase Manopole.
“It is clear that we need investor-attractive and investor-oriented local municipalities with the capacity to deliver the needs of businesses, so that we create certainty and predictability. In return, the companies will invest more, empower and create more jobs in the Namakwa District. We need to strengthen the local economic units of our municipalities to have competent professionals to handle sophisticated investments issues, and the economic spin-offs that these investments create. This is even more urgent for the Khai-Ma, Nama-Khoi and Ritchersveld municipalities because of the investments pipeline, and those that are already on their municipalities. In broad terms, strong municipal leadership is required across the District,” said Deputy Minister Gina.
As we welcome and interface with all of the investments from minerals to renewables, efforts must be made to include the local people in these new investments coming to Namakwa District beyond just employment opportunities but to include some level of ownership. Development projects towards communities must be people-driven and must never be paternalistic towards them. This approach presupposes strong stakeholder engagement efforts towards communities and Social Labour Plans implementation must respond to this line of thought.
“The District, working with Local Municipalities, will engage companies to channel their (SLPs) and Corporate Social Investments (CSIs) to bursaries and skills development to the scarce skills areas like building of solar panels, and many other green energy components in the youth of Namakwa district. This means working with TVET Colleges in the district and the province,” said the Executive Mayor, Councillor Mervin Cloete.
