Finance MEC’s visit gives hope to residents

Gauteng Finance MEC Barbara Creecy visited Pimville on Thursday for a meeting to discuss service delivery issues with residents.

The meeting was held at the Pimville Community Centre.

The visit by the MEC was part of the Social Transformation Cluster Programme to evaluate service delivery.

Creecy reiterated the call to revitalise the Township Economy made by Premier David Makhura earlier this year.

“As the provincial government we are working towards finding ways to help township entrepreneurs to access funding from banks,” said Creecy.

The MEC said this will go a long way in helping township entrepreneurs play their role in the revitalisation of the Township Economy.

The government is spending R10 billion on goods and services but only 4% of that last year was spent on the Township Economy.

That means only R400 million of that R10 billion went to township entrepreneurs.

“We want to ensure that between now and 2019 we spend at least R3 billion on the Township Economy when we buy goods and services as the provincial government,” said Creecy.

This year alone the government is targeting to spend R 1.2 billion in the Township Economy.

This will be done firstly by helping small township businesses register to be on the database of service providers to the provincial government.

Another thing is to make it easy for small businesses to get paid on time when they do business with government.

A self service invoicing system has been launched at the Thusong Centre at Maponya Mall.

The centre will help small businesses submit their invoices efficiently and ensure that they are paid on time.

The rotation system will be introduced as well by government to make sure that everyone gets a chance when it comes to providing services to the government.

Before the meeting with residents, the MEC visited the Kliptown Police Station and the clinic.

The visits were meant to assess service delivery and for the MEC to listen to the people’s complaints.

@MzwaJourno