Sustainable Villages Support

• Board of Directors
• Management
• Office of the CEO
• Agricultural Development Unit
• Enterprise Support
• Project Management Support

The District Municipality has realized that in order to fight poverty and underdevelopment, there needs to be a special focus on turning around the economy of the thousands of villages that constitue the District Municipality.

It is with this background that the leadership of the District Municipality and its local municipalities decided on a strategy that would ensure sustainable development in the villages in the area. A stategic anaylsis by the district and its development agency revealed that it is only targeted and sustained economic development programmes that can make the villages work.

The influx of people into towns and cities where they stay in informal settlements worsens poverty as the cities are in most cases not ready to accomodate thousands of unemloyed people with no source of income whatsoever and that leads to homelessness as the unemployed people cannot afford to buy houses or even to build their own homes.

The first stage of the process was to agree on a nodal development approach for the development of rurual areas in the district as the key pillar of sustainable development.

Eight rural development nodes were then identified and they are listed below:

• Emfundisweni rural development node (ERDN) – Ntabankulu Local Municipality
• Shawbury rural development node (SRDN) – Mhlontlo L.M.
• Tsilitwa rural development node (TRDN) – Mhlontlo L.M.
• Baziya rural development mode (BRDN) – KSD L.M.
• Viedgesville rural development node (VRDN) – KSD L.M.
• Ntlaza rural development node (NRDN) – Nyandenie L.M.
• Gogozayo rural development mode (GRDN) – KSD L.M.
• Palmerton rural development mode

Structure of the villages

The sustainable villages concepts comprises of:

• Economic Infrastructure Development
• Primary Health Care Facilities
• Shops
• Government Services ONE STOP Shop
• SMME Village
• Rural Training Centre
• Tourism Facilities

Ownership and Control for the Sustainable Village Infrastructure and Programme

The facilities in all the nodes will be owned by a registered broadly representative community legal entity.

Rental Income and other Income

The rental income on land and other activities in the commercial centre and in the node in general will accrue to a properly constituted community trust that will manage development projects for the benefit of the whole community.

Income from the activities in the node will also accrue to the trust and will also be used to finance development that beneifits the whole community as well as creating job opportunities for young people and other members of the community.

Economic Benefit Analysis of the Development Nodes

The nodes are seen as anchored on economic activities that will generate income for the local community, create jobs, providing training opportunities for young people and eradicate poverty.

The different commercial activities as explained earlier in the document will surely provide a firm foundation for the development of the local economy. It is expected that hundreds of permanent jobs will be created during construction of the infrastructure and facilities.

Financial Information