According to the website of the KZN Department of Agriculture & Rural Development, the department’s vision and mission is to strive for an ‘an inclusive, sustainable and radically transformed agricultural sector that builds thriving communities in balance with nature to advance sound agricultural practices that stimulate comprehensive economic growth, food security and advancement of rural communities’.
In a bid to achieve these ideals, the MEC for that department, Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi, was in the area last week as part of the premier’s Operation Sukuma Sakhe to overcome issues that have destroyed communities such as poverty, unemployment, crime, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS and other health issues.
The MEC’s first stop was to visit the vegetable-growing project in Tandy Street, which has been going for several years and aims to make the mainly women who cultivate the land self-sufficient. There were whoops of joy from the women when the MEC presented the group with fertilizer, spades, garden forks and other equipment to assist them in growing the variety of vegetables they grow.
Matilda Mthembu, who co-ordinates the garden project, expressed her thanks for the MEC’s support, saying that the donation will ‘make a big difference to the success of the project’. The MEC also visited the Crises Centre and several community projects in Sibongile.
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