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#FSbudget: Mining towns, industrial zone in spotlight

───   KATLEHO MORAPELA 11:46 Wed, 10 Jul 2019

#FSbudget: Mining towns, industrial zone in spotlight | News Article

Residents in mining towns in the Free State will soon breathe a sigh of relief. This, as the provincial government plans to revitalise these towns with infrastructure development and ensuring that small scale miners are awarded mining licences.


According to the newly appointed MEC for Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Makalo Mohale, it is unacceptable that the number of unemployed people in the province is on the rise whilst the province is rich with mineral resources. Tabling his department's 2019/20 budget, Mohale has vowed to invest in the youth of the province and ensure economic growth. He alluded that investment in Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) remains key to government. In efforts to deal with the scourge of unemployment, Mohale reiterated that measures to ensure radical economic transformation must be fast-tracked.

He further announced that that the province plans to create 223 000 permanent jobs in the province through the Maluti-A-Phofung special economic zone.

This economic zone, located in the eastern part of the Free State, was officially launched by former President Jacob Zuma in April 2017.

The economic zone established to create opportunities for manufacturing, as well as a regional and international trade environment, with an added value chain within the Maluti-A-Phofung Municipality, has for years been in the spotlight with many posing questions about its sustainability and how it will improve the lives of citizens.

Opposition parties in the legislature have previously argued that the provincial government’s projects are used to extend networks of patronage and for looting by corrupt cadres and their business partners.

In 2006, the then President Thabo Mbeki indicated that the Harrismith Hub, later the Harrismith Logistics Hub, would be developed. Former Premier Ace Magashule launched the project, then renamed it the Maluti-a-Phofung Industrial Development Zone. The project is to date nonetheless still under construction.


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