Sekhukhune’s Economy Booms

GREATER Sekhukhune is fast becoming a Mecca for investors intending to do business in Limpopo province.
Recent statistics indicate that the district enjoyed an average economic growth of 5, 9 % in 2006 as compared to the province’s 4, 7 %.

Greater Sekhukhune district executive mayor, Cllr Namane Masemola, said during the State of the District Address (Soda) that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Sekhukhune accounted for 66 % of the provincial average.
“Indeed we are on track,” Masemola said.

“We have a reason to be optimistic about the direction the district is taking in terms of economic growth. Surely, Platinum City post apartheid South Africa is inevitable in this region as we said in 2001,” he added.
Masemola said plans were also afoot to establish the Sekhukhune Economic Development Agency (SEDA), which would be a vital tool for unleashing economic growth in the region.

The agency, he said, has been given a nod by Provincial and Local Government minister Sydney Mufamadi.
It will be established in the 2008/09 financial year and thereafter the Board of Directors would be recruited.
Masemola has however raised a concern that the rich mineral deposits, particularly platinum, in Sekhukhune were not providing solutions to poverty levels afflicting a large number of the population.

He said he had noted protests by communities directed at mining companies operating in the district.
“It is befitting to make a submission to the Department of Minerals and Energy Affairs (DME) not (to grant) mining licences to companies that do not produce a balanced evidence of community involvement, that do not show a clearly agreed social development plan and the programme and commitment to Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBEE),” Masemola said.

Masemola also announced that a Casino would be established in Tubatse, and an agricultural academy to boost the sectors’ economic potential.