BY OBAKENG MAJE
PHOKWANE Municipality held Local Economic Development Summit on last week at Thabang Centre Hall in Bonita-park.

This Summit encouraged entrepreneurs in the Phokwane region who contribute to the economy and create job opportunities.

Representatives from several organisations presented giving entrepreneurs information on how to access funding, how to improve their businesses and writing of business plans.

Entrepreneurs who attended had an opportunity to raise questions relating to their businesses and received advice and feedback from presenters.

Organisations that attended and gave information included National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA), Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Seta), Phokwane Local Municipality, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Phokwane municipality’s LED Manager, Boitumelo Koena said this is one of many initiatives that Local Economic Development has embarked on in order to improve the lives of entrepreneurs and assist them in growing their businesses.

“The summit was in partnership with the NYDA, ,SEDA, Economic Development and DTI that presented on the day. The main purpose of the information session was to bring young entrepreneurs and youth owned businesses and organisation whose mandate it is to develop young entrepreneurs together to create a platform for local youth to access the services provided by these organisations,” he said.

Koena said this is the Municipality’s endeavour to curb unemployment by mainstreaming youth businesses into the local economy.

Northern Cape Economic Development Department senior manager, Hendrik Louw said they came here to empower the people in Phokwane and encourages the youth to be part of economy growth.

“Youth empowerment is of paramount importance. We need to appreciates the youth and their development must make sure their change peculiarities around them.

“National development should be given a holistic approach, not just based on focus on certain sectors. An African proverb says ‘every hen was once an egg’, So we can not expect our youths to metamorphosize into heroic nationbuilders if they were never visionaries and patriots as youths,” Louw said.


He said they brought various stakeholders to shed more light on how to become successful entrepreneurs and nurturing the development of micro business persons is the third most important thing a nation can do (apart from take care of the populace and take care of the land).


“Youth Empowerment may be a misnomer. I agree with various stakeholders representatives that it is keying in on wisdom also. It is good to get youth involved in projects and movements, but as said below, without good leadership and planning, movements can fail. What is needed is a concept of teamwork with people of ALL ages participating in a worthy cause,” concludes Louw.

One of the micro business people was Sarah Ledwaba(62) who runs food garden in Ganspan.

Ledwaba said they appreciate the visit because most of the time they sometime do not know where to ask for help, but organisations like SEDA, DTI and NYDA come handy to help them establish their businesses.

“We highly-appreciate the visit of various stakeholders. My wish is to see them visiting us at our stalls and see the hardship we going through. We really need help and agriculture is they key factor here in Phokwane,” she said.

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BY OBAKENG MAJE
 North West Provincial Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Premier, Treasury and Enterprise Development led by Raymond Elisha welcomes the decision of the North West Development Corporation (NWDC) in taking the initiative to take over the ownership and operation of Christiana Hotel known as Protea Hotel Christiana after it was liquidated.

This was during a preliminary oversight visit the committee conducted at the hotel, as part of the “O re bone, Re go bone” Campaign which means “You see us and we see you” aimed at taking the legislature to the people to strengthen oversight and public participation and to promote accountability and transparency in government. 

The purpose of the visit was to determine the value for money in buying the hotel, the processes that unfolded on the acquisition of the hotel and its assets, and the state of readiness of the hotel.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NWDC, Lemogang Moletsane gave a brief overview of the purchasing of the hotel, stating that it was an opportunity that the cooperation seized as part of rebranding, re-positioning and renewal of the province to purchase the hotel to create an economy that can be viable for growth in the province.

“This opportunity can create a good platform for cooperatives such as the youth and military veterans to have job opportunities and create a sustainable environment for themselves,” said Moletsane.

The Acting Manager of the hotel  Moses Seriti stated that the former director of the hotel was unable to pay the owner and this led to the hotel going for an auction which cost the NWDC R38 million to purchase it.

“The previous director whom we traded under could not manage to pay off the owner of this place, and it has not been operational since last year 25 November 2014 and this led to the auction which took place on the 12 March 2015,”said Seriti.

Thus far, the NWDC has managed to pay R6.4 million as deposit and are anticipating to pay off the balance by the end of June this year. The CEO stated that the NWDC did not budget for this endeavor as part of their Annual Performance Plan, but managed to acquire most of their budget from their reserves and also were assisted by the Department of Finance, Environment and Enterprise Development with an amount of R11 million.

They also mentioned that the amount is inclusive of all assets, lock, stock and barrel inclusive of the game farm.

It was noted that staff that was previously working at the area had been retrenched with packages, but would be given first preference in time for recruitment processes and will also allow opportunities in hiring young people who have hotel management expertise in the province.

The cut-off date for the full operation of this hotel is the 01 September 2015, as it is still under maintenance and renovations. The Chairperson of the Committee, Elisha welcomed this initiative is a good platform for opportunities in growth of the economy as well as creating sustainable job opportunities for the community, but requested the CEO to provide a thorough report for the committee as part of strengthening oversight to ensure transparency and accountability.

“We welcome the good initiative for this pursuit by the NWDC, but we also have a requirement to perform our duties as part of our mandate to conduct oversight so as to protect and ensure that the public purse is effectively and efficiently used in benefitting our communities,” said Elisha.

The committee requested the CEO to issue a detailed report on the value for money for the acquisition versus the expenditure, profits made since acquisition, to compile an asset register including assets of animals at the game farm, feedback on staff that have been retrenched and hired since inception of business, a detailed operational plan and the process that unfolded on the auctioneering of the hotel.

Elisha also said that the next meeting that will be scheduled in the next quarter would include the Portfolio Committee on Tourism as the facility forms part of conservation and serves as a tourist attraction site.

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