A yearly campaign has done little to decrease violence against women and children.
The Limpopo business community acknowledges that the two special economic zones announced by Premier Chupu Mathabatha in his State of the Province Address will attract investment worth billions of rands, but are doubtful as to who will benefit.
In his address Mathabatha said the Limpopo cabinet has approved the Musina-Makhado special economic zone and the province has also submitted Tubatse to be declared a special economic zone.
“These investments will attract over R44-billion,” said Mathabatha.
The premier’s address was discussed at the Mail & Guardian Critical Thinking Forum held in conjunction with the Limpopo government and Capricorn FM at Meropa Casino on Tuesday, February 28.
Limpopo Chamber of Business chairman Ashley Rasebotsa said the business community hailed the premier’s message, but did not know who will benefit from the project.
“We see the clouds gather but we do not know if it will yield rain,” said Rasebotsa.
He said he did not know if the government believed the municipalities had the capacity to run the projects or if the government will capacitate the municipalities and allow other businesses in Limpopo to be involved in the projects.
He said that at face value the business community was excited about the announcement, but it remained to be seen if they will be rewarded.
Other panellists included Limpopo director general Nape Nchabeleng, Professor Lesiba Joseph Teffo from Unisa and political analyst Ralph Mathekga.
All the panellists gave Mathabatha’s administration a thumbs up, but said it needed improvements.
Mathekga said the performance of the Mathabatha administration was not bad, but his speech should have been aggressive and not a business-as-usual type.
Professor Teffo said the Mathabatha admiration did well as far as management is concerned.
“As a technocrat himself and a politician by default, Mathabatha has done much better than previous administration,” said Teffo.
He said, in order to make major improvements, the province should concentrate on agricultural development and the capacitating of TVET colleges.
He said the government should sensitise people against the culture of dependency, and in that way we could do better with limited resources.
He said the problem in South Africa is that of kleptocracy, and meritocracy is not being considered, and that people should be taught not to focus on tenders in entrepreneurship.
Commenting on the concerns of the business community regarding the special economic zone, he said in South Africa, there is not only the problem of white monopoly capital, but there is also the minority black elite, and it is the one that could dominate in projects such as the special economic zones.
The discussions hosted on Capricorn FM by Thabiso Kotane had listeners asking questions.
Someone from Mokopane said some of the information provided in the speech was not accurate, as the roads in his area left much to be desired. He said the roads needed to be stitched up from time to time.
Premier Mathabatha, who arrived at the event although he was not a panellist, answered some of the questions.
He said as far as he knows there were not tarred roads in rural villages around Mokopane, and everything came with the democratic government.
“Even in the old apartheid times, we could see some workers stitching roads so we must not undermine the improvements done by the government,” he said.
He appreciated both the positive and negative inputs.
Nchabeleng appreciated the inputs and said the provincial government would work on them.