Bokone Bophirima’s government is doing more to spread development over the province. Photo courtesy SA Tourism
Bokone Bophirima is more than a collection of hamlets strung together by fragile metropolises. It is a tapestry woven by villages, towns and small dorpies, each with their own vibrant colour, history and mood.
These villages, towns and small dorpies (VTSDs) now form a central part of all that government does and are set to receive millions of rands in development spending. This was announced by Bokone Bophirima premier Supra Mahumapelo during his State of the Province address, delivered in Taung last Friday.
At the end of last year, the Bokone Bophirima government held a VTSD Lekgotla to discuss development focused on small towns, with delegates from countries as diverse as Botswana and Nigeria. Following up on this, in September this year, the Bokone Bophirima government will host a VTSD Skills Development Lekgotla: “This lekgotla will bring together local, continental and global experts and role players in human resources development to craft practical strategies to develop youth skills required by the economy.” There are 753 VTSDs in the province, of which 657 are villages.
The villages and towns will firstly benefit from legislation that directs spending to them. Mahumapelo announced that government will, during March, table a VTSD Preferential Procurement Bill in the North West Provincial Legislature to force both state and private companies to spend 70% of their procurement budgets to procure goods and services in Villages, Townships and Small Dorpies.
“The VTSD Preferential Procurement Act will definitely come into effect from 1st April 2017 with the new financial year 2017/18 and government is still committed to achieving the 70% procurement.” said Mahumapelo.
In the year to December last year, government had spent R 1.1-billion on VSTD procurement, all of it paid within 30 days, and over 90% — or R900 million — within 21 days in line with the Public Finance Management Act, a practice that is crucial to helping sustain small businesses.
The towns will also be recipients of accelerated delivery of VTSD agribusinesses to build small scale agro hubs across the province. An agro hub brings together primary production, processing and marketing of agricultural products.
Alongside agro hubs will be industrial hubs in VTSDs, as light manufacturing is normally found to be the most suitable industry for such towns.
The government will also work with the construction industry with a view to establishing a provincial construction hardware factory with VTSD branches to support small enterprises through the housing settlement RDP budget.
VTSDs will also host Youth Employment Services housed in the offices of the mayor to offer critical youth support. They are also currently hosting centres for expanded public works projects and similar initiatives.
The province’s tourism strategy, the VTSDs tourism action plan, is also centred on these towns and villages. The plan aims to ensure that tourism spending trickles from major centres like Sun City and Madikwe Game Reserve to surrounding towns and villages.
VTSD enterprises also receive extensive support. For instance, the National School Nutrition Programme is being implemented within the Framework of VTSDs at a cost of R430-million. Schools will be expected to support bakeries that were funded by government and local agricultural products like community gardens.
Mahumapelo also announced that more than 250 individuals from different small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) have been assisted with registration and given workshops on pricing and invoicing. They have also been given sewing machines, bakery equipment, cleaning chemicals, production machinery and equipment and packaging materials. Cooperatives were supported on technical training, mechanical jobs and installation of tunnels. Support was given to 153 SMMEs in the development of various skills and access to markets, while 258 private companies were registered with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission. Cooperatives were also registered and supported while 170 informal businesses received equipment as part of the Informal Traders Upliftment Programme.
In Bokone Bophirima at least, small towns are the place to be.