This has been revealed by the MEC for Finance, Economic and Tourism Development, Mac Jack on Wednesday at the Frances Baard municipal chambers. This as he revealed in his speech that more than R5 billion has been invested in the development at Gamsberg to produce 4 megatons (Mt) of zinc ore a year by the Vedanta group. This is expected to lead to the procurement phase of the project which he tells OFM News is expected to create about 10 000 direct and indirect jobs related to the port construction and another 15 000 indirect jobs for the rail construction.

He adds that as the province moves towards the eradication of youth unemployment in the province an amount of R25 million in 2019/20 has been allocated to the Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) for projects linked to the Operation Kgotso Pula Nala programme. Jack says this is aimed at making the youth more employable through skills development.

Jack says during a departmental conducted poll at least 43% of the residents in the province requested that the provincial government should rather turn its focus towards basic service delivery while 23% said the issues of infrastructural development should be speedily attended to in a bid to create more jobs for the youth. In total, provincial infrastructure spending for the next three years will amount to R8.7 billion, of which R2.9 billion will be spent in the 2019/20 financial year. Over the same period, R1.3 billion is earmarked for new and expanded infrastructure including schools, health facilities, and social housing, R429 million for the rehabilitation and refurbishment, R430 million is set aside for non-infrastructure assets such as machinery and equipment, and R3.8 billion will be utilised for the maintenance, repairs, and upgrading.

OFM News