WARD COMMITTES LAUNCHED IN ANDM

The Eastern Cape Department of Transport and Safety has launched a Village Committee to help fight crime in the deep rural areas of the province.

Launching the committee on Wednesday in Mount Ayliff, MEC Ghishma Barry said the committee was made up of a combination of dedicated people from the communities.

“The Village Committee is a broader coalition of traditional leaders, the youth, teachers, parents, the Community Policing Forum (CPF), the police and all those who are dedicated to making the area a safer place,” he said.

He said one of the key areas of the provincial crime prevention strategy was to strengthen the communities fight against crime.

“In realising this key focus area, we have established the Village Committees to work in small areas of our communities.

“We have decided to launch this Village Committees Programme in Mount Ayliff because it is mostly rural and vast, but serviced by one police station, which is based in town,” he said.

While the CPFs are mainly situated at police stations, he said the Village Committees will be placed at the locality level in small areas to make the environment safer through doing patrols and neighbourhood watch working together with the police.

The objectives of the programme are to promote pro-activeness in the fight against crime; ensure the active involvement and participation of youth and community at large in crime prevention initiatives; promote neighbourhood watch.

The committee will help minimise the challenges that continue to confront police stations, especially in rural areas.

“I strongly believe that working together we can defeat crime and reposition the Eastern Cape to become a compelling place to live, work, invest and play in,” the MEC said.

The following projects are being implemented but not yet approved:

Earlier this year, President Jacob Zuma told communities that “Being born in a rural area or the countryside should not condemn people to a life of poverty and underdevelopment,” says.

“Our vision for the development of rural areas arises from the fact that people in the rural areas also have a right to basic necessities.

“They have a right to electricity, water, flush toilets, roads, entertainment and sport centres. They have a right to shopping centres, good schools and other amenities like their compatriots in urban areas,” said the President.

During the 2008/2009 financial year over R120 million was spent by ANDM in water and Sanitation infrastructure.

Some of those projects were the Hlane water supply at a cost of R8.3 million and the R21 million; Mvenyane Water Supply projects.

All these projects have contributed immensely in the economy of the ANDM and resulted in many jobs being created.

The District has spent an R65 million in the construction of VIP toilets in villages within the ANDM. An amount of over R2.2 million was spent in construction of Disaster Management Centres, in Mount Frere and Maluti.

FROM THE LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FRONT

 Alfred Nzo District Municipality has been busy with forming Strategic Partnership that will assist in service delivery.

ALFRED NZO ABALIMI PHAMBILI PROJECT

In October 2008, Alfred Nzo District municipality, together with Harmony Gold and Teba Development ,  as the implementing agent, formed a public-private-partnership for agriculture development targeting small-scale community farmers in the District. This was a result of the Growth and Development Summit. The objective of the farming project is to stimulate the local economy by providing farmer support services and strengthening linkages to markets for participating farmers. This is a 3 year project which will end in October 2010.

R1.9 million per annum is budgeted for this programme with each partner contributing 50%.

The target group is 2000 farmers over 3 years. Lima Rural Development Foundation manage the day-to-day running of the programme on behalf of the funders.

To date 503 community farmers have been reached with farming extension support. Farming inputs including seeds, seedlings, piglets, chicks, fertiliser, manure and pesticides were procured for the participating farmers.

A commercial seedlings nursery has been constructed in Msukeni to enable access to vegetable inputs for farmers and households. This will lead to an increase in vegetable production in the area.

One of the success stories of this initiative is the Isingisi vegetable project which is supplying a local supermarket on a regular basis. The programme also provides a revolving loan facility to participating farmers for buying inputs.

ALFRED NZO LIVESTOCK IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME

In October 2008, Alfred Nzo District Municipality, together with Goldfields Foundation and Teba Development ,  as the implementing agent, formed a public-private-partnership for agriculture development targeting livestock farmers in the District. This was a result of the Growth and Development Summit.

Livestock such as sheep, cattle and goats represent an economic lifeline for many in the Alfred Nzo region. The District Municipality recognised that there is abundant communal land and communities need to be assisted to optimise their resources to break out of poverty. This project is designed to improve the health, breeding quality and the number of livestock units and encourage livestock owners to sell additional livestock and generate income for themselves in the process. Participation in the programme is voluntary.

The participants are treated as Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME’s) and all inputs like livestock medicines and feed supplements are paid for by the farmers themselves. The project uses experienced farmers as mentors, in line with international practise of farmer-to-farmer extension. This type of hands-on learning conducted over a period of time has proved to be effective.

This is a 3 year project that will end in October 2010. The project budget is R 2 million with both partners contributing 50%. The implementing agent on the ground is Mngcunube Development.

The target was to reach 2000 farmers by 2010. To date 2 450 farmers in 330 villages have been reached in 2 years in Umzimvubu and Matatiele. The largest number of participants in the programme come from Mabhobho (106 farmers) and Saphukanduku (101 farmers) in Umzimvubu and Rholweni (103 farmers) in Matatiele.  53 786 livestock units are participating in the project and receive animal health services. These livestock owners have the potential to generate R 16 million per annum when their livestock improves. 2 enterprises in livestock services called VLP’s : village link persons, have been established to supply livestock owners in remote rural areas with livestock inputs.

ALFRED NZO KEY-HOLE HOMESTEAD GARDENS PROJECT

This project encourages households to produce their own vegetables using keyhole gardens which are constructed using stones, bricks, metal cans, soil, ash and sticks. Grey-water for the homestead is used for watering the gardens. The way these are constructed is such that they can be used by the elderly, young children and infirm.

The key-hole gardens are funded by Alfred Nzo District Municipality and are implemented by Teba Development and Mngcunube Development. The target was 250 homesteads for 2009. The qualifying areas in the pilot phase are those that face food insecurity. To date we have 255 homesteads participating in this programme in 13 villages in Matatiele. The villages are Chibini, Magazela, Mathias, Nyanzela, Nurach, Mahangu, Pamlaville, Mawundeni, Mashu, Gobizembe, Makoba, Hillside. The villages with most members is Chibini (57 homesteads) and Makoba (41 homesteads).  The beneficiaries have now started adding value to the vegetables by making jam, chutney, and other bottled preserves. They are interested in starting a home industry and have their own small businesses which could supply local shops and B&B’s.

ALFRED NZO COMMUNITY WORK PILOT PROGRAMME

The Alfred Nzo District Municipality was the pilot area for the Community Work Programme to test community-based public works employment. This programme was implemented by Teba Development as part of the government’s second economy intervention programme. The project was piloted in 20 wards in Umzimvubu and Matatiele local municipalities. Temporary employment of 6 days a month was provided for unemployed people, the majority being youth, in order for them to assist communities and in the process improve physical community assets. Three sectors identified by communities through their area based plans which feed into the municipality’s IDP were focussed on. These were the social sector, agricultural sector and construction sector. The social sector involved home-based care where participants in the programme cared for vulnerable households in their villages targeting orphaned children, the elderly and unwell. The second sector had participants support food insecure households by helping them establish household food gardens and repairing and upgrading community gardens. Rainwater harvesting was also introduced to these communities. The construction sector saw participants repair community fences, school fences, maintaining village roads, protecting springs and repairing schools and water systems. Teba Development provided training and support for all participants. A total of 2000 people have so far been employed in this programme. The pilot phase proved so successful in Alfred Nzo, it is now being rolled out countrywide. An additional 2000 people in 10 wards will now be employed in this programme in the District by the end of 2009. The project had a budget of R 4,5 million of which R 2,84 million was spent on wages for participants. 51% of the project beneficiaries are the youth. The project is funded by the national Department of Public Works.

ASGISA-EC DEVELOP RURAL AREAS—R7 MILLION PROJECT LAUNCHED

Nokulunga Makholwa was one of hundreds of jobless youth in Alfred Nzo District Municipality, in the Eastern Cape. Feeding her two young children presented a daily challenge. But all that changed for the young 28-year-old, with the rollout of a grain project at Dangwana Village outside Mount Frere.

Makholwa is one of the community members taking part in the rural Grain Production project in Dangwana Village, which is part of the Districts food production programme.

The R7 million project was officially launched during a two-day outreach programme by the Eastern Cape Premier Noxolo Kiviet and her cabinet.

This Grain production projects was launched by MEC Mbulelo Sogoni and MEC Mcebisi Jonas in front of over two hundred people.

The project focuses on the grain production in which ASGISA-EC played a major role in assisting.
Makholwa said that before the opportunity arose to work on the project, she used to go to bed at night with an empty stomach. But that is no longer the case.

“I’m now a person just like other people who are able to support their children and sleep with full stomachs, the project has saved my life,” she said.

The rollout of the project was hastened after the district was hit by severe unemployment.
The district decided on the grain production as it can stand the harsh weather conditions in the area.

The project, which was also meant to address the high rate of unemployment within the district, is on a large barren of land made available by the district.

It is run by a project steering committee with the communities making sure that they work themselves in the fields.

During a visit to the actual site, MEC Sogoni encouraged the community to continue with the good work they are doing.

“No one else will work for you in these fields either than your selves. We as government are committed in assisting in any form to make sure that this project does not fail. It is also imperative that you also guard this as it is your livelihood” MEC Sogoni said.

The target group for employment includes women, youth and community members in the villages.