BY KEDIBONE MOLAETSI

THE NORTH West provincial government led by premier Supra Mahumapelo and South African National Defence Force (SANDF) minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula gathered together at Palms hotel in Mahikeng, and signed a Momerandum of Understanding (MoU).

The partnership between SANDF and the provincial government was unveiled on Thursday. The partnership came to light after the initiative by SANDF to part skills to underdeveloped areas.

Minister Nqakula said her department will work together with the province in developing the province.

“Our plan is to assist  the province to achieve a competitive advantage in a global economy by providing the youth with professional advice, benchmarking opportunities, process facilitation, workshops, local and national conferences, network forums and annual research in the field of training resource development.

“We have noted that according to our feasibility study, agriculture is at the apex because it is the only industry that is very imperative in human being kind. Without agriculture, there is no life. What we doing now, we will bring our expertise from our department, SANDF to share the skill with the youth of the province, whether in agriculture, engineering and construction.  We’ve realized that most people are living beyond poverty line, and that need to change,” Nqakula said.

Nqakula said all plan will be unrolled in the next financial year in 2016.

North West premier Supra Mahumapelo said the plan is to eradicate poverty and change the lives of the people of North West.

“There are many lands not occupied in the province, and if we plan around carefully, we could make use of them. Many people are migrating to the suburbs, and that is a concern. We planning to decentralize that, that is why we bringing SANDF expertise and other stakeholders. We need to have that ability to imagine unimaginable, by doing so we will see our province increasing its economy,” Mahumapelo said.

Mahumapelo said they have brought in the expertise of commercial farmers to partake in the project of farming that will be unrolled in association with the SANDF department. He said that will help the youth and create job opportunities.

“Our plan as the province is to increase the province’s economy and created triangular key factors. Our aim is to increase the economy of the province by 6% and that is why we having Agriculture at the apex and followed by Culture and Tourism. We need a manifested plan to create job opportunities especially for the youth.

“The province decided to come up with initiative where we dedicate our budget to Villages, Townships, and Small Dorpies. By 2019, 90% of our budget will be spent on these areas because development plan is needed,” he said.

SANDF Chief-General, Solly Zacharia Shoke said they will bring skill developments to the province and create few projects were the SANDF will monitor them.  “As the department, we pledged to create job opportunities for our people, and by so doing we will encourage people to outsource local labour, and local procurement policy need to apply. Rural development and coherence structure, will come into place and also have North West University as partners,” Shoke said.

-TDN

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