Joint National Working Groups on Economic Empowerment and Public Employment Programmes, and Rural Development and Public Works meets

Posted: 24 November 2017

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Chaired by Councillor Deon de Vos, the joint National Working Groups on Economic Empowerment and Public Employment Programmes, and Rural Development and Public Works took place on 22 November 2017 at the SALGA National Office in Tshwane.

SALGA's Economic Development Director, Charles Parkerson made a presentation on the 'Jurisprudence Related to the Informal Economy, Lessons learned by Municipalities'. Mr. Parkerson urged municipalities to develop a position paper for Local Government regarding the informal economy in the 2017/18 financial year.

Following Parkerson’s presentation, SALGA Economic Development, and Planning Strategic Manager, Delani Khanyile spoke about the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP) stating that “SALGA needs to find out from municipalities what their challenges are with the EPWP, thus consolidate the position on the EPWP Programme for submission to Minmec Forum.”

Dr. Lindile Ndabeni from the TUT Institute for Economic Research on Innovation presented about rural innovation with a specific focus on the function of agriculture in the national system of Innovation. “South Africa’s economy is highly dependent on its cities and this remains a major concern.” said Ndabeni.

Speaking about the Rural Densification Programme, Mxolisi Mchunu SALGA Programme Manager for Economic Development said that the “growth of rural areas are mainly organic, incidental and left to chance.” Mchunu presented that it is difficult for municipalities to provide services to remote rural areas because of the per capita land supply, misdirected capital investment and discretionary land allocation.