West Rand mayor tackles unemployment

As a way to create jobs, the West Rand District Municipality has identified several “game-changer” projects designed to result in at least 1 600 jobs for people of the region, according to mayor Boyce Maneli.

Maneli, who was delivering his state of the district address at the district council chamber in Randfontein on Friday, said one of the earmarked eight projects was the West Rand Logistic Hub Project. This had an estimated value of R600 million and would be located under the West Rand Municipality area.

Maneli said the hub would be a regional cross-docking point where products would arrive, get sorted and then delivered to their destinations. Doing the work within the area would help to provide jobs, while reducing costs associated with transportation, storage and distribution of the goods from producer to consumer.

While the hub alone would create at least 1 000 jobs, there were other projects designed to also reduce unemployment. Maneli mentioned the projects he said would help to position the West Rand as a critical economic development player in Gauteng.

The second largest after the hub was the West Rand Agri and Agro Parks, that had been earmarked to create 500 jobs. Another was the Busmark project, a component manufacturing facility, that would create 150 jobs in the Rand West city, while 40 jobs would emerge from gas and energy projects in Merafong.

“The projects will create a total of 1 690 new jobs, which are broken down into 325 management jobs, 570 operational management jobs, 300 transport jobs, 215 for security, 80 in information, communication and technology and 200 that fell within the farming sector, including producers.”

On his regional outcomes that dealt with service delivery, a total of 14 000 households were on indigent registers in Merafong, Rand West and Mogale City local municipalities, Maneli said.

Maneli said these houses received the free 6 kilolitres of basic water, a maximum of 80 kilowatt hours of electricity and free solid waste removal per month.

The district’s ageing electricity infrastructure would also be upgraded. An amount of R1.5 billion was required to upgrade the Mogale City Spruit substation and transformer, representing the transmission line between the Factoria and Libertas substations, among others.

Khutsong in Merafong also required a new substation as the current substation was old and had experienced capacity restrictions. Further funding was needed to electrify Zenzele informal settlement in Rand West.

Maneli announced the region had received recognition on several issues – one of which was an award for the best-managed initiation schools in the country. The district produced outstanding matric results with a 91,2% pass rate.

– ericn@citizen.co.za