The Gauteng MEC for Social Development, Morakane Mosupyoe engaged with residents at the Ramosa Hall on Thursday April 7 on the recently-passed Township Economic Bill.
Addressing residents, most of whom aspiring business owners, the MEC said the Bill was passed on March 24 this year by the Gauteng Provincial Legislature with the aim to rebuild the economic geography of the country’s townships and disadvantaged communities.
She said it was a victory for all residents of Gauteng because, “It will ensure the economic development of townships. The legislation will make the lives for Gauteng residents easier as they’ll not be travelling to other parts of the province for jobs, but will instead be working where they live. Searching for opportunities in others areas will now be a thing of the past.
The Township Economic Development Act is designed to bring opportunities to many, and confront inequality at the spatial level by changing how townships are regulated and governed to transform them into zones of widespread, job-creating commercial activity,” the MEC said.
She said the Act would enable government to promote inclusive human settlements by bringing people closer to economic opportunities so that they could set up better procurement rules and programmatic support which allow government and its main contractors to buy from large groups of township-based firms, with systems linking them so they could supply as if they were one large firm. This includes manufacturing cluster pilots.
“It will provide legal framing for the Taxi Economy Initiatives – the development of a real commuter economy that uses taxi ranks and converts them into mini-business and commercial districts.
This Act was designed and passed to focus on development and enable transformation within our townships. It ought to be celebrated and bring excitement to our communities because it means we are making progress in our agenda to reverse the ills of the past when townships were developed by the apartheid regime. They were never intended to be areas of economic activity,” MEC concluded.
