AFTER fighting a losing battle over many months, the Zikulise Community Upliftment Project will at the end of this month be evicted from its premises at the Empangeni Arts and Crafts Centre on Turnbull Street.
The registered non-profit organisation has served the community for the past 14 years, by providing income generating skills training to the local unemployed.
However, they will now without a home and the organisation is appealing to the public for assistance.
Zikulise has had the benefit of occupying the municipal buildings at a very nominal annual rental and has enjoyed the support of the municipality for the past 10 years.
This has allowed Zikulise to advance its training to participants and operate successfully since inception.
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The centre has, as a result of generous donors, been upgraded to meet the needs of a growing training centre and has been used as a window to exhibit the success stories of trainees.
However, this project is now sadly in jeopardy.
‘Unfortunately, municipal representatives have informed Zikulise they do not intend renewing the lease and that the organisation must make way, as early as this month, for the National Youth Development Agency,’ said a spokesperson.
‘The municipal officials have stated their preference for that agency.
‘Efforts to engage with the municipality, including an offer of sharing the premises, appear to have been exhausted as the municipal representatives appear intent on evicting us.
‘Unfortunately, it does not appear that the municipality is prepared to consider the plight of the people currently receiving the benefit of training, nor indeed the impact of its decision on the community.
‘Thus far, over 5 000 members of the Zululand community from impoverished homes have benefited from receiving training, without having to pay any training costs, due to the fundraising efforts by Zikulise.
‘Zikulise would like to continue to embrace the drive to create job opportunities and align itself with the government’s agenda to address job creation, entrepreneurship and the eradication of poverty,’ the local NPO noted.
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