“The reality is that we need to do something different, something major for this municipality to thrive.”
These were the words of the Executive Mayor, Nozuko Best, during the launch of a plan to keep our municipal area prosperous – even after more mines in the area started to close.
The municipality unveiled this plan, called Re-imagining Merafong Vision 2035, at a breakfast session at the Fochville Civic Centre on June 26. The aim of the event was for the municipality to share a long-term plan for our area’s survival which is part of the municipality’s economic turnaround strategy. A variety of officials from various towns and spheres of government and businesspeople attended the event. There were even messages of support for the new municipal plan from businesspeople in the United States and India, which were pre-recorded and shown on the big screen.
The fact that the municipality collaborated with the mining house Sibanye-Stillwater in the plan was evident. An item by their Supervisor for Social Closure, Karabo Mathonsi, started off the formal part of the event by setting out some of their proactive planning and management for minimizing the negative impacts when some of its activities in the area close. The mining house, which contributes to 20 percent of the West Rand’s GDP, says it will assist municipalities such as Merafong to unlock the potential of its assets no longer suitable for mining to catalyse local economies. It has, for instance, already earmarked 352 hectares of land in Merafong for solar projects, 30 hectares of agricultural projects and 80 for industrial development.
The Mayor shared more details about the municipality’s future plans.
“A bright future for the municipality is one where the economy is vibrant, business is thriving and opportunities are alive for all,” she told the crowd.
Although the economic growth in our area declined since the Covid-19 pandemic, our strengths include, among others, the availability of land, our location in the greater Gauteng, tourism opportunities, mineral resources and positive relations with stakeholders.
The plan, which the Mayor called ‘a rescue mission’ focuses on six pillars which aim to diversify the economic sectors in our area and grow the economy. It was drawn up after an assessment was done of our municipal area’s current economic profile and the type of economic interest the public and private sectors have shown.
The municipality is busy positioning our municipal area as an ideal choice for renewable energy. In this regard at least six solar farms will be built in the area as part of a government-driven initiative. Two independent developers and Sibanye-Stillwater already signed an agreement for the development of two of these farms on May 22. Other independent developers who are not part of the current government-driven action have also already shown interest in our area for this.
The municipality will also promote the area for global and regional adventures, heritage, sports, arts, culture and tourism as this has shown to be a very stable economic sector. Plans for this include the possible revival of a water park at the old ‘Padda Dam’ site outside Carletonville.
Merafong will also be promoted as the ideal place in the province for green agriculture investment. Some local and international businesses have already shown interest.
The municipality will also focus on promoting the development of high-value wildlife estates and other housing projects available for all, as we are ideally situated to do this.
It also wants to revitalise townships by supporting businesses in the area. The last pillar of development is the rejuvenation of the Carletonville and Fochville CBDs. The municipality is busy developing an urban management intervention in the form of establishing city improvement districts to deal with the unpleasant look of our CBDs, as this is scaring off investors.
